Are you smarter than a fifth grader?

[daryn]

are you guys serious? it doesn't have to be a right triangle.

[Duke]

I missed a lot of the thread, but has anyone explained that this:

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I didn't know the answer to the triangle one because I haven't taken a math class in 6 years and I've never had to figure out the height of a triangle in that time. However, once I looked up the formula for area of a triangle I could derive the formula, which is pretty important.

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is pretty much the definition of being incapable of deriving the formula?

[Alobar]

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I missed a lot of the thread, but has anyone explained that this:

[ QUOTE ]
I didn't know the answer to the triangle one because I haven't taken a math class in 6 years and I've never had to figure out the height of a triangle in that time. However, once I looked up the formula for area of a triangle I could derive the formula, which is pretty important.

[/ QUOTE ]

is pretty much the definition of being incapable of deriving the formula?

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I think he meant to say he could derive the answer once he had the formula

[DeuceKicker]

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the title is misleading - it should be called 'Do you remember the [censored] you learned in 5th grade?', and with me, it's invariably yes.

[/ QUOTE ]In that case, I don't think they taught you the definition of 'invariably' in 5th grade.

[orange]

The implication that a 5th grader is smarter than an adult just because he knows a few random facts is retarded. Give the 5th grader a simple algebra problem and he/she probably won't be able to do it.

'Smarter' is also an ambiguous word...sure, I might be 'smarter' than stephen king in science or math...but in regards to writing, no way.

[dlk9s]

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What really pissed me off is that they came from the Deal or No Deal school of milking each question for five minutes and then going to commercial. We've come a long way from the days of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, where we could go through 15-20 questions, which were much more difficult and interesting than this, and a few contestants per episode.

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Thank you.

I don't know how anyone could enjoy any of these new game shows. Last night, they went through six questions in thirty minutes. Every [censored] show is like this now. One easy question, five minutes of hemming and hawing, commercial, repeat.

Jeopardy does sixty questions plus final Jeopardy in thirty minutes. And the questions are generally difficult.

I watched last night because I thought it would be funny, but I was wrong.

[bobman0330]

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Very good. Now where did you prove that a diagonal through a rectangle is half of the area? "it seems pretty obvious" may work for you, but its not a real derivative and is just another memorization or "intuition guess" that may or may not be correct.

I'm talking about mathematical precision proof, not "good enough for tv shows" proof. I agree > 1% could guess it correctly by intuition, but intuition SUCKS for deriving anything real.

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I'm pretty sure you can demonstrate that two congruent triangles can be assembled to form a parallelogram using some basic theorems about transversals.

[bunny fufu]

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I don't see how anyone could defend not knowing any of these things. I could see, maybe, how an especially absent-minded person might not know when Columbus Day is, and someone with no grasp of history might not know about the Johnson impeachment, but getting more than one of these wrong is appalling.

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I will give you some equally easy questions from another perspective that any Canadian 5th grader would know (Canadian)

1) The Canadian north was transformed in the late 1890s when some 100,000 prospectors poured into the Yukon hoping to "strike it rich". What name was given to this colourful period?

2) The Hudson’s Bay Company is the world’s oldest chartered trading company, having been in business for 335 years. What product gave this company its start?

3) Canada has experienced political scandals throughout its history. In 1873, John A. Macdonald’s government was brought down when it was discovered he awarded lucrative railway contracts in exchange for campaign funding. What was this scandal called?

4) When did Canada eliminate the one dollar bill and replace it with the Loonie coin?

5) What major Canadian economic policy of Pierre Trudeau’s government sparked the creation of a bumper sticker proclaiming “Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark?”

6) In 1911, Wilfrid Laurier’s Liberals lost the federal election because of their support for what agreement with the United States?

7) After more than a decade of construction and a string of political scandals, what great Canadian engineering feat was completed in 1885 with the hammering of the Last Spike?

8) What major historical event brought over 1,000,000 women into the Canadian workforce?

You guys are working under the assumption that there is one basic set of knowledge and curriculum that everyone should draw on because that's what is taught in US schools.

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8) Legalized prostitution?

[CrazyEyez]

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The implication that a 5th grader is smarter than an adult just because he knows a few random facts is retarded. Give the 5th grader a simple algebra problem and he/she probably won't be able to do it.

'Smarter' is also an ambiguous word...sure, I might be 'smarter' than stephen king in science or math...but in regards to writing, no way.

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Dude it's a joke. Do you actually think Jeff Foxworthy or anyone in America thinks any of the contestants aren't as smart as a fifth grader?

[Jack of Arcades]

[ QUOTE ]
I missed a lot of the thread, but has anyone explained that this:

[ QUOTE ]
I didn't know the answer to the triangle one because I haven't taken a math class in 6 years and I've never had to figure out the height of a triangle in that time. However, once I looked up the formula for area of a triangle I could derive the formula, which is pretty important.

[/ QUOTE ]

is pretty much the definition of being incapable of deriving the formula?

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The question is what was the height. I found the equation for the area. I was able to manipulate the area formula to find the one for height. I think that's a more important skill than memorizing the formula for height.