dodgey school maths?

RetiredGreyFox · 6 Oct 2019 at 16:16

Street said:
Because if you increased 10 each month and were at 507,483 in June, you'd have to increase by 129,970 to reach 637,453 in July, which isn't a power of 10.

Powers of 10 are 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10000, 100000 etc.

Now that makes sense - thanks

dowie · 6 Oct 2019 at 16:17

SexyGreyFox said:
and 129,970 is still a multiple of 10s

It's like you can put whatever you want as long as it's a multiple of 10s.
I think it's an incorrectly worded question.

power of 10 not multiple of 10

Where does the question say multiple of 10?

RetiredGreyFox · 6 Oct 2019 at 16:18

dowie said:
power of 10 not multiple of 10

Where does the question say multiple of 10?

Somebody explained it better than you - thanks Street
Thanks for your patience.

dowie · 6 Oct 2019 at 16:28

SexyGreyFox said:
Somebody explained it better than you - thanks Street
Thanks for your patience.

Given that you didn't initially answer my question but ignored it twice it is rather difficult to explain something to someone when the subject is both incredibly basic and I don't want to come across as patronising. I'd even posted a correct answer earlier on in the thread and suggested you take a look at it.

You literally linked to a video that illustrated what powers of 10 were but the explanation that got it for you was someone's post doing the same. I'm not a mind reader unfortunately.

RetiredGreyFox · 6 Oct 2019 at 17:34

dowie said:
Given that you didn't initially answer my question but ignored it twice it is rather difficult to explain something to someone when the subject is both incredibly basic and I don't want to come across as patronising. I'd even posted a correct answer earlier on in the thread and suggested you take a look at it.

You literally linked to a video that illustrated what powers of 10 were but the explanation that got it for you was someone's post doing the same. I'm not a mind reader unfortunately.

Apologies, looking at my reply it looks like I was being a bit off with you - I wasn't.

dowie · 6 Oct 2019 at 17:51

no worries

Mr Jack · 6 Oct 2019 at 18:32

So, in summary, many adults on a computer forum can't do year 5 maths...

RetiredGreyFox · 6 Oct 2019 at 20:08

Mr Jack said:
So, in summary, many adults on a computer forum can't do year 5 maths...

Strange isn't it that in the 1960s we never did counting in powers of 10

Mr Jack · 6 Oct 2019 at 20:11

SexyGreyFox said:
Strange isn't it that in the 1960s we never did counting in powers of 10

I've never done it before either, but you only need to know what a power of 10 is in order to do it. It's not a tricky concept, which I guess is why they're teaching it to people in year 5.

HoneyBadger · 6 Oct 2019 at 20:19

OP, you spelt dodgy wrong in thread title.

PaulStat · 6 Oct 2019 at 20:27

0+10 fat red hen
1+9 feeling fine
2+8 something about a gate
etc.

McGray · 6 Oct 2019 at 20:48

SexyGreyFox said:
Strange isn't it that in the 1960s we never did counting in powers of 10

Lol. I thought it was supposed to be the new generations that lacked common sense?

[FnG]magnolia · 6 Oct 2019 at 21:16

the typo in the OP can be corrected by the following:

Code:

0 + 9.99 = 10

SlyReaper · 6 Oct 2019 at 21:23

dowie said:
@Maccapacca didn't provide context but it just looks like it is asking you to add distances of like 1000, 10,000, 100,000 etc..

So for example answers could be:

517,453
527,453
537,453

It might be better if he provided the full question sheet though. Just a quick google of the national curriculum and "year 5" (presumably some year in junior school?) requires:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...programmes-of-study#year-5-programme-of-study

But... that's not what power of 10 means. A power of ten is a number expressed as [number] = 10^[smaller number]. I read that question as asking for intermediate values in an exponential function. I can't make the question make sense any other way.

Dis86 · 6 Oct 2019 at 21:29

SlyReaper said:
But... that's not what power of 10 means. A power of ten is a number expressed as [number] = 10^[smaller number]. I read that question as asking for intermediate values in an exponential function. I can't make the question make sense any other way.

No. That's a base of ten.

Mr Jack · 6 Oct 2019 at 21:34

SlyReaper said:
But... that's not what power of 10 means. A power of ten is a number expressed as [number] = 10^[smaller number]. I read that question as asking for intermediate values in an exponential function. I can't make the question make sense any other way.

The powers of ten are 10^0, 10^1, 10^2 and so forth, i.e. 1, 10, 100, 1000... and so in both directions. If the distance changes by a power of ten each month it must change by one of these numbers.

dowie · 6 Oct 2019 at 22:20

SlyReaper said:
But... that's not what power of 10 means. A power of ten is a number expressed as [number] = 10^[smaller number]. I read that question as asking for intermediate values in an exponential function. I can't make the question make sense any other way.

You've kind of contradicted yourself there - yes 10^[some number] is a "power of 10", now take a look again at the post you quoted and note it is increasing by 10,000 i.e. a "power of 10". If you re-read what I wrote I said "it just looks like it is asking you to add distances of like 1000, 10,000, 100,000 etc.." those distances are literally = 10^[some number].

The question makes no mention of an exponential function. In fact the question doesn't restrict answers beyond requiring that the distance increases over the months from the figure given in the first to reach the figure in the last one. You could have an increase of 100,000 after the first month and 10,000 in subsequent ones for example.

RetiredGreyFox · 6 Oct 2019 at 22:32

McGray said:
Lol. I thought it was supposed to be the new generations that lacked common sense?

Stop being an idiot, I have now after 30 minutes learned what it is and how to do it.

mrk · 6 Oct 2019 at 23:00

There's only one power that matters. The power of Grayskull.

aardvark · 6 Oct 2019 at 23:01

i too, at 46 years old, have learnt to do something utterly useless that i have never used in the past and will never use in the future.