ok, try this, it's pretty easy once you've twigged, was written by a friend of mine
excuse the spelling and grammar, it's not the best
i came up with this idea in 1990 after a steady background in maths and seeing the lack of core skills so many people were without, this is my
political statement at the loss of the most basic calculus skills that must have been taught to everybody, but seems not to show when you spot people
at a supermarket counter with 2 or 3 items in their basket and they actually pull a calculator out to figure out how much money they need to get out
to pay the girl behind the till!
any similarities between nasa scientists and imperial/metric systems regarding lost probes is purely unnintentional, i did create this problem way
back!!!
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On a far off world, in a further off galaxy, there existed an aquatic world, whose predominent species resembled closely the octopus that lives in
earths oceans. These aliens had tried to tame their worl by constructing weather control satellites that they launched into orbit, but they had made
an error in programming the satellites and were now looking at ecological disaster as their ecology was ripped apart by poor settings (no comparisons
with this website, lads and lasses!)
so, the best of their worlds scientists had gathered together in a last ditch effort to work out what they had done wrong in the calculating and
quickly reprogram the satellites to behave in the manner they were expecting. the senseless squabbling went on for days until a young scientists
apprentice walked out into the centre of the gathering and getting everybodies attention he said,
"you pompous old timers have forgotten the core, the most primary way we calculate and have messed things up by overlooking the obvious, the
calculation is easy, it is
12 x 20 = 200"
of course, there was total pandemonium and when this settled down, cries and heckles issued forth from the best of the best, demanding that the
youngster prove his calculations, explain how he came to them and demonstrate that what he said was true, that the very core of their calculation
systems were being overlooked.
can you show how he has arrived at this calculation?
Legs.
eleven
42
One solution is if the number base is very, very large.
They must count with a lot more than ten tickles.
They just hand over the Switch card nowadays. Anything to do with them having 8 appendages? I'm not at my most mathematical on a Friday night.
quote:
Originally posted by CairB
One solution is if the number base is very, very large.
They must count with a lot more than ten tickles.
Well, it's only exact at infinity.
But I don't want to go there.
well its not base 3, 8 or 12. fcuk knows...
what if they used more than one base system?
well that would be a bit silly wouldnt it now staples?!
base 8 for the first part and base ten for the second and the answer?
that's the bunny
from what i can tell
12 base 8=10
20 base 10=20
10x20=200
Keep trying, I'm sure you'll get it in the end.