Has anyone ever been disqualified from winning a big prize because they couldn’t answer the “timed, unaided, skill testing question”?
Never happened to me, but I think if I was told I just won a car/trip, I probably couldn’t add, let alone multiply and divide with a timer going, without the trusty calculator!!
Would they really disqualify you or would they give you the answer? Is there a legal reason most contests must ask this math question before giving you the prize.
thanks
I have no idea what your question is really asking but FTR the correct answer to your math problem is -503.
Wackamole, the correct answer is 288. I think my point is well demonstrated!!!
No, it isn’t. Wackamole’s right; it’s -503. You have to do the multiplication and division first. Change 24/3 into 8 first and follow from there:
10+103-7724/3=X
10+103-778=X
10+103-616=X
113-616=X
-503=X
x=-503
The reason you lose all those contests is that nobody taught you order of operations. 
You made the error of doing everything left to right; 10+103 is 113, minus 77 is 36, times 24 is 864, divided by 3 is 288. That ain’t how math works. You do it in this order:
Remember: BEDMAS!
Hmmm, I make the answer to be -503, applying BODMAS
I know my order of operations…I only posed the math question to demonstrate my question. I didn’t mean to get so technical…sorry I forgot the brackets!!!
I only wanted an answer to my written question!!
Nope…the correct answer is -503. You need to remember your order of operations (something taught to most 6[sup]th[/sup] graders that almost everyone I know forgets after college. The order of operations are:
Parenthesis
Exponents
Multiply or Divide (left to right)
Add or Subtract (left to right)
To help you remember your Order of Operations try this mnemonic: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally
So, your math problem breaks down like this:
10 + 103 - 77 * 24 / 3
10 + 103 - 1848 / 3 (multiply 77 * 24)
10 + 103 - 616 (divide 1848 by 3)
113 - 616 (add 10 + 3)
-503 (final answer)
In answer to your original question I don’t know who ‘they’ are or what big prizes you are talking about but if the rules stipulate that you have to answer a question in a given time period them I suppose you would not win the prize if you didn’t answer (or answer correctly) in the given timeframe.
I agree that most people probably perform worse when under a time restriction than they do without it. I certainly do.
Could you please repost the actual OP? I am having a bit of difficulty extracting the question from it.
10 + 103 - 77 * 24 / 3
Then add the parentheses so:
((10 + 103) - 77) * 24 / 3 = 288
Any contest I have ever seen has some question you have to answer before you win.
Is this a legal issue. Can companies not GIVE away a prize.
Sorry about the math question, my example was to assume that they would feed you the questions one at a time, starting with the easiest… + and - .
Didn’t mean to send everyone offtrack!
Can you cite a particular contest that has this requirement? So far as I’m aware, your ordinary give-aways, lotteries, Grand Prize drawings, and the like, don’t have any such requirement. They do require that you be eligible - and presumably that you answer eligibility questions correctly - but those questions go to requirements like not working for the company that’s running the contest, or any of its subsidiaries.
Lin, just a hunch, but are you Canadian? I think that it is the case in Canada that trivial questions such as you mention are used to make the contest officially one of “skill” rather than “chance”. This is to get around anti-gambling laws.
In the states, the laws vary depending on which state you’re in, and the qualifications for “skill” vs “chance” are differently defined, so we don’t see too much of that sort of technicality.
I think Lin is Canadian. As a dual citizen, I’m familiar with both skill-testing lotteries and non-skill testing lotteries. Plus, I know how to say “part of this complete nutritious breakfast” in French!
This link describes it better than I would have. Excerpts:
Must be Canadian. In Canada, a lot of commercial giveaways have the skill-testing-question requirement so that it’s not technically a lottery.
There aren’t skill testing questions for the actual government-run lotteries, on the other hand. (And there’s no income tax on lottery winnings in Canada, so when I hit the jackpot, baby, it’s all mine!)
Actually, Shib, you only need the outside pair of parentheses.
ie (10+103-77)*24/3
Not that yours is wrong, just redundant.
Thanks everyone, I am in fact Canadian. Was not aware of the differences in the laws within the two countries… I just thought none of you guys ever entered any contests.
Lin
(bolding mine)
Being from the country who brought the world ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’*, I’d like to point out there are more than two countries on this board!
ShibbOleth and pulykamell:
The op question was: 10 + 103 - 77 X 24/3 = ? It is not the same as: ((10 + 103) - 77) * 24 / 3 = 288 or (10+103-77)*24/3 I’m not sure where you were taught math, but I was taught not to add parenthesis when they are not in the original problem.
Therefore:
((10 + 103) - 77) * 24 / 3 = 288
(10+103-77)*24/3 = 288
but
10 + 103 - 77 X 24/3 = -503
Rules of math state that you do calculations in order, higher levels come first. Wack-a-mole and RickJay were right and the question should be done in the order RickJay posted.
DebiJ,
I think ShibbOleth and pulykamell were showing how to arrange the problem so that you got the intended answer.