Are you smarter then a 4th grader????

[Dawn of Hope]

The question that started the thread was imprecisely written. It is not clear, from the wording used, at what point in the process Mary decided she was being cheated by only having one cookie a day while everyone else had two per day. If she only made that decision after a week had gone by, then the cookies would have lasted longer than 21 days. If she decided that at the opening gun, then why the heck did they say that she was only going to have one cookie in the first place when she never did that in practice? <grumble> See, this is why intelligent people sometimes have more trouble on certain kinds of tests than people of more average intelligence--they see more possibilities than the test-developer anticipated if the question isn't written carefully enough.

BTW, I have a degree in applied math (although I'm not currently actively using it), so I'm not just blowing smoke. Logic puzzles are my favorite, too.

And I'm thinking I wouldn't be offering any more chocolate wafers to that last kid on the team--the one who took 15 cookies at once.

BM, congratulations, you are neck-and-neck with a 4th grader!

Oh, and Kerry, I would love to be able to explain how magnets work, but the "Electricity & Magnetism" section of my freshman physics class was what made me decide to drop the physics part of my math and physics double major. I can talk about double-slit wave experiments and acceleration all day, but I still refuse to have anything to do with electricity that is more involved than flipping light switches...even if I did unscrew a switch plate and look inside at the wires the other day when my GFI tripped!

Peace,
Dawn