This is the state of American education

[a completely inoffensive name]

Depressing.

[Fragony]

What's a square number? I don't understand the question

[Greyblades]

I'm presuming thats a language problem, a square number is any number that is the result of a number multiplied by itself, or squared.

5*5 =25
4*4 = 12
3*3 =9
2*2 = 4
1*1 = 1
20000*20000 = 400,000,000
25, 12, 9, 4, 1 and 400,000,000 are all square numbers.
It's generally assumed that anyone over 13 in a english speaking country's education system has at least an idea what a square number is.

[rajpoot]

Meh, these game shows are all fake. :/

[Fragony]

I'm presuming thats a language problem, a square number is any number that is the result of a number multiplied by itself, or squared.

5*5 =25
4*4 = 12
3*3 =9
2*2 = 4
1*1 = 1
20000*20000 = 400,000,000
25, 12, 9, 4, 1 and 400,000,000 are all square numbers.
It's generally assumed that anyone over 13 in a english speaking country's education system has at least an idea what a square number is.

I see. Pretty dumb then. 4x4=16 by the way

[Greyblades]

...It's been a while...

[The Stranger]

the sad thing is, in this game a guy can win 25:000 (insert valuta) but is not happy because he answered the question wrong and if he had it right couldve won 1 million... -_- he is not happy with 25,000 WTF!!!!@#!@#!@#!

[Fragony]

I would be happier with a million than I would be with 25.000. Watched the clip, what is most disturbing is how many people in tne audience got it wrong. How do they manage to get that wrongly.

[Vladimir]

I see. Pretty dumb then. 4x4=16 by the way

/thread

[gaelic cowboy]

I would be happier with a million than I would be with 25.000. Watched the clip, what is most disturbing is how many people in tne audience got it wrong. How do they manage to get that wrongly.

because they didnt cop that what the question actually asked for was the sum of two differing sets of square numbers.

What they did was said X*X are two square numbers and they make Z.

[classical_hero]

The answer is always "A".

[Fragony]

because they didnt cop that what the question actually asked for was the sum of two differing sets of square numbers.

What they did was said X*X are two square numbers and they make Z.

Perfectly simple no, number can't higher that the same number it was devided by, you take lower square numbers and see if they add up. Have humans lost the capacity to think a little geez

[The Stranger]

I would be happier with a million than I would be with 25.000. Watched the clip, what is most disturbing is how many people in tne audience got it wrong. How do they manage to get that wrongly.

yet you would still be happy with 25.000. shoulda seen the face of this guy. looks like he just got slapped in the face XD

[gaelic cowboy]

Perfectly simple no, number can't higher that the same number it was devided by, you take lower square numbers and see if they add up. Have humans lost the capacity to think a little geez

Reasoning out any problem from first principles is probably not taught in any school today.

In fact I wouldnt be so sure a tv audiences would get this right anywhere at all.

[The Stranger]

The answer is always "A".

allright that was hilarious XD

[Montmorency]

I thought the audience typically gives the wrong answer for simple questions deliberately, as an expression of contempt for the contestant.

the sad thing is, in this game a guy can win 25:000 (insert valuta) but is not happy because he answered the question wrong and if he had it right couldve won 1 million... -_- he is not happy with 25,000 WTF!!!!@#!@#!@#!

Yees, I watched the related videos as well.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Depressing.

I'd weep more for the reading comprehension fail than the Math fail. Some people just don't grasp numbers very well, and number theory remains a rather tricky subject in any case. Poor literacy in America is probably a bigger evil than having too many liberal arts students and not enough STEM types or liberal bias in college education or take-your-pick as it doesn't bode well for Americans' ability to communicate or solve problems. (How can you solve a problem if you cannot properly digest the description?)

[a completely inoffensive name]

I'm really doubting that if the question has been worded better that the guy would have gotten it correctly. You don't need precision English here, you just need to know the terms

1. Square number
2. Sum

Both of these are terms hammered into you by the time you leave high school...supposedly. The question reads just fine to me.

[Tellos Athenaios]

I'm really doubting that if the question has been wor ded better that the guy would have gotten it correctly.

My point exactly. The question is about as clear as it can possibly be to the intended audience (native speakers with an American education) and yet not only did one guy under some pressure fail to understand it (which could be the nerves, or being really bad at Math or whatever) a clear majority of the audience failed at the same task as well.

They're not all being extremely bad at basic calculations. But the wider context is, of course, that the USA's literacy rate isn't doing too well.

[Montmorency]

Apparently, was incorrect. It is of American audience members, in particular, to select what they genuinely believe to be the correct option.

[a completely inoffensive name]

My point exactly. The question is about as clear as it can possibly be to the intended audience (native speakers with an American education) and yet not only did one guy under some pressure fail to understand it (which could be the nerves, or being really bad at Math or whatever) a clear majority of the audience failed at the same task as well.

They're not all being extremely bad at basic calculations. But the wider context is, of course, that the USA's literacy rate isn't doing too well.

I don't get why you would rather believe that instead of math education being completely abysmal you want to say that American's just can't read.

[Tellos Athenaios]

I don't get why you would rather believe that instead of math education being completely abysmal you want to say that American's just can't read.

The stats I recall from various Backroom debates on the subject. Then again, it could be my engineering bias -- I've long since learned to accept that for the "average" person "Math" is "hard" even if it's completely trivial stuff, so I tend to overlook Math difficulties as a problem.

[Kralizec]

My old roommate was a math teacher (with on the job training for the math part; turns out he didn't like it and he's teaching different subjects now) at some point. He once showed me a test they held for 14-15 year olds who attend VMBO, which is the lowest tier of high-school education in the Netherlands. The questions were extremely easy, to me anyway and I'm guessing for most of you as well. One of the questions involved some random backstory and a function graph, with a clear upward curve. The question was basically "how can you tell that [whatever it was that's represented by Y] is increasing"....

I was told that most of the class passed that test, but I imagine that they wouldn't have gotten the question in the OP right either.

[Hamata]

i stink at math especially when it comes to money. in canadian currency but i'm good at multiplication

[tibilicus]

As an educated person I would have lost $15,000. I'm not stupid, I just suck at maths..

[PanzerJaeger]

As an educated person I would have lost $15,000. I'm not stupid, I just suck at maths..

Same. I could not figure it out in the ~two minutes he had. I understood the question and the terminology used, and the answer made sense when I heard it. With five minutes and a little more effort, I'm sure that I could have, but numbers just do not come naturally to me. The receptors in my brain simply are not geared for it. I had a private education, so I do not think this is necessarily an indictment of American education.

On that subject, one should remember that like every other national ranking, the relative extremes in the US as compared to other developed nations drag our education ranking down. America has plenty of very high quality schools, but they tend to follow the money whereas even the very poor in, say, Germany, can get a quality education. That is just the nature of our country. Our comparably libertarian outlook has both strengths and weaknesses versus more socialized nations.

It is a fallacy to claim Americans in general are less intelligent or that the American education system is failing based on national rankings. The system is failing a very specific segment of the population, which is in turn bringing the total average down. Schools in poor areas certainly need to be fixed, but their issues do not impact most Americans. Kids in suburbia are just as well educated as those in other developed nations. Those in the inner cities are not so lucky.

[spankythehippo]

Depressing.

As soon as I saw the question, I instantly thought "16 and 9 makes 25. It's B." That video was pretty shocking.

Here's another hilarious moment. It's a comedy sketch.

[classical_hero]

I would be happier with a million than I would be with 25.000. Watched the clip, what is most disturbing is how many people in tne audience got it wrong. How do they manage to get that wrongly.

Some do it deliberately to put off the contestant.

[Ibrahim]

Our comparably libertarian outlook has both strengths and weaknesses versus more socialized nations.

don't tempt me.


anyhow: the question isn't that hard...even for me, and I am horrible at math.

answer is 25. I didn't even watch the video through: that's just something I know. (5^2, and 9+16).

so the guy (and several others like him) got it wrong; but how that should imply anything about the US education system though is beyond me. I mean, I could think this up in a few seconds:

1-the guy's an idiot, and so is this particular audience
2-the guy's an idiot, and the audience was messing with him (it happens),
3-he may have simply failed to think it through (to be distinguished from options 1 and 2, and includes certain failures in comprehention)
4-the pressure got to him, or
5-all or some of the above.

none necessarily implies anything about the state of the education system in the US. after-all, everyone else outside might know the answer for all one can tell, and be largely American at that. And in case anyone wonders: I lump "sucking at math" with option #3, since let's face it, that's what it is: one cannot think it through, as they can't do this "on their feet". again, no implication of mental incompetence, or a failure strictly speaking in education.

now does that mean the US system is fine? well, no. it isn't--far from it. as this is not the backroom, I'll leave it at that.

[a completely inoffensive name]

On that subject, one should remember that like every other national ranking, the relative extremes in the US as compared to other developed nations drag our education ranking down. America has plenty of very high quality schools, but they tend to follow the money whereas even the very poor in, say, Germany, can get a quality education. That is just the nature of our country. Our comparably libertarian outlook has both strengths and weaknesses versus more socialized nations.
.

That's a pretty big weakness. Glad to know we are still the land of opportunity.