How's your maths?

[gardening_gal]

Not gardening related in the least but if it helps, pretend I'm asking about how much greater one set of pea plants is to another.

Simple simple question but I have 2 answers for it, provided by a) looking on the net and b) asking family.

So exact wording of the question is - how many times greater is 27 than 9?

My immediate response was 3 but someone else said 2 i.e you start off with 9 then need another 2 lots of 9 to make 27.

That started a bout of second guessing all round and a search on the net where loads of people said 3 and loads said 2.

So...what's your thoughts?

[Jay-ell]

18 - it says how much rather than how many times

[gardening_gal]

18 - it says how much rather than how many times

I'm sorry! I typed it wrongly.

'Calculate how many times greater 27 is compared to 9.'

[Jay-ell]

Ah - changing the question to suit your answer eh?

In that case 2

It's 18 greater and 18 is 2 times 9 so it is 2 times greater but 3 times the amount

[gardening_gal]

Ah - changing the question to suit your answer eh?

Lol, it still didn't suit my answer, looks like I was still wrong.

Thank you.

[Bigmallly]

Well, my answer would be 3.

9 is 1 times greater than 9
18 is 2 times greater than 9
27 is 3 times greater than 9.

[Jay-ell]

The thing is that it's not the maths that's the problem it's the interpolation of the English.

[Jay-ell]

Well, my answer would be 3.

9 is 1 times greater than 9
18 is 2 times greater than 9
27 is 3 times greater than 9.

Surely 9 is equal rather than greater than 9
9 is 1 times 9 but not greater than.

[Bigmallly]

Looks like GG is gonna be no wiser asking on here...................

[Jay-ell]

42
The problem is we don't really know the question

[Bigmallly]

It looks like we are not the only ones to disagree:

https://www.algebra.com/algebra/home...on.464129.html

[Jay-ell]

It's all about symantics and how the meaning of greater is defined

[gardening_gal]

Ok, for the sake of absolute clarity here is the actual question. Along with the answer (which I didn't know was available! )





I hope this works.

The answer is 3 btw.

I offer apologies for any headaches produced whilst giving this any thought.

[vixylix]

I'd have said 3 too GG

[Martin H]

Yep, I'd have shown detailed workings and put 3 in the box because that's what I think they want me to put. It's a stupidly ambiguous question though because the pedantic answer would be 2.