Can someone help me with a math (fraction) question?

wesimmo said:
If anything it's 2/5, but it's a poorly written question and that answer only works if you assume that 5 goals were scored in the first half and 20 in the second. But for me the question is unclear.
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So your answer is pretty much in agreement with what I've posted then? Why the comments about "it's like watching people with no arms trying to box each other." when Inogen could just as easily quote your post to repeatedly argue that you should have written 10/25 instead of 2/5
 
inogen said:
I think you'll find the correct answer is 10 goals. not 2/5 goals. not two fifths goals. Not 2 out of 5 goals.
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10 isn't a fraction, that is the number of goals (given the previous assumptions)

if the question was:

"How many goals did the top 6 teams score?"

then you could answer: 10 goals

but it didn't, it asked for a fraction, so 2/5

you then add in your own bit to make it sound silly, no one has answered "two fifths goals" or "2/5 goals" that is a straw man argument

the fraction or portion of the total goals is two fifths

2/5 (or 2:5 if you prefer, though both are perfectly acceptable) is the ratio of goals scored by top 6 teams when compared to non-top 6 teams. Not the fraction of 25 goals scored by top 6 teams.
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Nope, you're getting the basics completely wrong here - if you wanted the equivalent ratio it would be:

2:3

not 2:5

2/5 is a fraction not a ratio
 
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I do enjoy reading a good maths problem on the Internet that isn't actually a maths problem so much as a poorly worded argument starter.
 
dowie said:
Nope, you're getting the basics completely wrong here - if you wanted the equivalent ratio it would be:

2:3

not 2:5

2/5 is a fraction not a ratio
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Ha, well yes you are right there. I'll give you that.

It still doesn't ask for a fraction though. The question regards a whole number of goals.
 
Diddums said:
Does he need to?

My reason is legit, I'm too thick.
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no you're not

anyway he has answered now - it pretty much agrees with what I posted, that the question is ambiguous but you could answer 2/5

now I've just got the silly argument from inogen that somehow the question implies that simplifying fractions is not allowed

inogen said:
It still doesn't ask for a fraction though. The question regards a whole number of goals.
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sigh, you're just making stuff up still, it literally does

again:

"What fraction of the total goals did the top 6 teams score?"
 
something daft already!! said:
It is spelt "Maths".
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Strictly speaking, the most correct form would be math's because the apostrophe indicates the deliberate omission of letters. e.g. can not --> can't, do not --> don't, mathematics --> math's, etc. math's was used as an abbreviation of mathematics in the past, but it fell out of use.

From a descriptive point of view, anything is correct if people use it. Abbreviating "mathematics" to "bob" would be correct if enough people did it.

Unlike the question itself, which is incorrect because it doesn't contain enough information to be answerable.
 
inogen said:
It's not really a maths question though is it? It's a data interpretation question.
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  1. OP writes in fraction notation.
  2. Thread title is "Can someone help me with a math (fraction) question?"
  3. Requested answer is for "What fraction of the total goals did the top 6 teams score?"

Your determination not to be Wrong on the Internet is laudable. But you're still wrong.

Wait, not laudable... What's that other word, oh yes - annoying.
 
dowie said:
no you're not

anyway he has answered now - it pretty much agrees with what I posted, that the question is ambiguous but you could answer 2/5

now I've just got the silly argument from inogen that somehow the question implies that simplifying fractions is not allowed



sigh, you're just making stuff up still, it literally does

again:

"What fraction of the total goals did the top 6 teams score?"
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I cannot believe how long you have argued with Inogen for, sometimes its best not to argue with an idiot and give up. However you are both wrong.

Taking the reasoning you gave dowie and that the notation 3/5 means 3 out of 5 goals and not 3/5th of an unknown number of goals, because as you state it is unsolvable without this.

In the second half the teams outside the top 6 scored 13/20 of the goals. It doesn't state "13/20 of the goals scored in the second half" therefore 20 goals were scored in total, 13 of which were scored by the bottom teams in the second half. This leaves 7 total goals unaccounted for.

3/5 of the goals in the first half were scored by teams in the top 6. As we know there are 7 goals unaccounted for, only 5 goals total were scored in the first half. this leaves 2 goals scored by the top 6 in the second half.

First half 3/5 goals, second half 2/15 goals. = 5/20 goals or 1/4 goals.

In all honesty it is one of those deliberately ambiguous questions typical of group interviews to determine group dynamics
 
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Entropy said:
I cannot believe how long you have argued with Inogen for, sometimes its best not to argue with an idiot and give up.
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He kept quoting me and I was bored so happy to respond :D

Entropy said:
However you are both wrong.
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Nah, you've highlighted another ambiguity (since we're assuming the question is deliberately ambiguous then fair enough) and provided a third interpretation there, that's fine it doesn't mean the other explanations are wrong.

In the second half the teams outside the top 6 scored 13/20 of the goals.

It doesn't say "of the total goals" or better still "of the goals scored in the game as a whole" most people have read it as implying that it refers to the second half, you've highlighted that you've read it as applying to the total goals scored across the game.

So we've now got three four interpretations, two that can't be solved without further information and two more that give answers of 2/5 and 1/4

edit - I should have added that you could also use that interpretation that the second statement refers to total goals to the interpretation that the question just gives the proportion of goals scored and then write out a different set of reasonable answers as a previous poster did albeit starting at 1/4.

In all honesty it is one of those deliberately ambiguous questions typical of group interviews to determine group dynamics
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I don't think this is typical of anything asked in interviews, it is more like the questions along the lines of:

"hey guys what is the answer to: 6 ÷ 2(1+2)"

That can generate a whole load of explanations from "BODMAS" to "well my calculator says..." to "BODMAs is for kids, I'm an Engineer and I say..." etc...
 
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