# Math word problem....help please.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-word-problem-help-please/265668>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 23, 2004, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-word-problem-help-please/265668 "2004-09-23T13:37:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-word-problem-help-please/265668/21 "2004-09-23T16:27:13Z")

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> [@js\_africanus](#):
>
> the goal is to learn how to utilize a particular type of reasoning, mathematics perhaps

I hate to break it to you, but being able to pinpoint exactly what is and is not specified in a given statement is as much mathematics as the calculation is.

Case in point: the old “farmer’s five sons” problem. Basically, the setup speficies a graph which is not four-colorable. However, due to the precise wording it didn’t specify what would correspond to a _planar_ graph. Imagine the look on my third-grade teacher’s face when I brought in two styrofoam tori the next day, one painted to solve the problem as stated and one to solve it if there had been seven sons: the most I could figure out how to do (and, incidentally, the maximum on a torus). My justification: the problem _never said_ that the farmer’s land was not on the surface of a toroidal asteroid.

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**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-word-problem-help-please/265668/22 "2004-09-23T16:44:01Z")

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> [@Mathochist](#):
>
> My justification: the problem _never said_ that the farmer’s land was not on the surface of a toroidal asteroid.

Popular kid, were you? 😛

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-word-problem-help-please/265668/23 "2004-09-23T16:53:27Z")

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> [@Colophon](#):
>
> Popular kid, were you? 😛

Life of the bleeding party. Then again, when the popular kids are looking for new jobs, I’ll be safely tenured. Who’s laughing at whose orthodontic headgear _now_, huh? 😃

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