Usually the pointer is the blahblah the teacher was droning while you were fantasizing about the attractive classmate sitting directly in front of you

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ThatGuy46475 9 points 2 months ago

I suppose “by definition” would probably have been counted as wrong

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GraniteM 8 points 2 months ago

I'm thinking maybe "Because if you subtract 40 from my number you get a negative number," but I could be either over- or under-thinking it.

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scibra122 4 points 2 months ago

I was guessing either it has fewer digits or the tens digit is less than 4 would be the desired answers depending on what the selected number was, that kind of question feels like it would predate negative numbers on the learning curve

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rants_unnecessarily 1 point 2 months ago

"Because it has less in it"

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grue 3 points 2 months ago

Yeah, I always felt like I was either pointlessly restating the obvious or it expected me to derive the damn thing from first principles.

AI slop proof, just because I was curious if duck.ai could do it

Using the natural numbers defined from 0 by the successor operation S:

1=S(0), 2=S(1), ... , 20=S^20^(0), 40=S^40^(0)

Define a < b to mean that there exists a natural number k such that

a+k=b.

Take a=20 and k=20. By repeated addition,

20+20=40.

Since 20 is a natural number, there exists a natural number k such that

20+k=40.

Therefore, by the definition of the ordering relation,

20<40.

(Is it correct? Fuck if I know!)

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Zarobi 6 points 2 months ago

A.I. is proving that 20<40 by:

creating a sequence
then completely disregarding that
then saying that since you can add 20 to itself to create 40 it must be less
then disregarding that and saying that the sequence of numbers proves it because we found 20 first

Honestly since it's such a simple equation, in real life you could just say 20<40 because 20<40. You don't really need to prove anything, the proof is in the logical operator. The homework question is dumb because it isn't clear what they're asking for.

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kubica 40 points 2 months ago

Because that's how numbers work, duh.

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PointlessLifePersonified 11 points 2 months ago

Arbitrary glyphs can mean whatever we decide they mean. One day 8 could mean what we commonly consider to be 2 today - we just have to choose for it to be so.

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Chef 12 points 2 months ago

Reality by agreement.

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bjoern_tantau 24 points 2 months ago

What's the expected answer? "Because 2 is less than 4"? Could be "because 20 + 20 = 40" but that seems to be too advanced for these types of tests.

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NeatNit 25 points 2 months ago

The question is intended to create an existential crisis and gaslight the pupils. How can anyone truly know anything?

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nymnympseudonym 4 points 2 months ago

Seriously this question can only be properly answered with Russel & Whitehead

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Hazel 10 points 2 months ago

Probably a number line? Draw a line to show it's only 2 jumps to 20 but 4 equally spaced jumps to 40.

As a teacher that's what I would've done at least. Number lines are quite effective at helping kids visualize numbers.

This response doesn't seem to indicate this particular teacher has adequately explained what the expected answer is though.

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RidderSport 3 points 2 months ago

Sounds reasonable, but the task should be something like "Draw a graph and show why 20 is smaller than 40" or something

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Hazel 2 points 2 months ago

Eh, I don't necessarily agree, you're testing a child's ability to come up with a solution moreso than their ability to follow instructions. Other answers are possible, and maybe a student prefers their own way. But one way of doing it, like a number line, should be so ingrained in all students that anyone knows at least that one way of doing it, imo.

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lugal 1 point 2 months ago

I don't think so. The question is so vague that I wouldn't know what to say and be stressed out. For a class room setting where everyone can share their idea it would be a different story but not in a test

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StumblingWasabi 1 point 2 months ago

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DarrinBrunner 11 points 2 months ago

"Because I paid attention to my teacher."

That should do it.

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crozilla 10 points 2 months ago

Lazy quiz questions were the bane of my education.

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DigDoug 10 points 2 months ago

The teacher is probably looking for something like "Because 40-20 is positive".

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snooggums 8 points 2 months ago

"Because 20 - 40 is negative."

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Jankatarch 7 points 2 months ago

"Because ln(20/40) is negative."

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Gonzako 5 points 2 months ago

"Because with 20 cranks you can't do 40 hogs"

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StumblingWasabi 4 points 2 months ago

Because the set of numbers including 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 contains a greater amount of numbers than the set of numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40

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tyler 5 points 2 months ago

This has to be the most useless red circle I’ve ever seen.

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OwOarchist 4 points 2 months ago

"I asked ChatGPT, and it said so."

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Etterra 3 points 2 months ago

Because I could eat 20 cookies, but 40 is too many. And that's terrible.