Tricky(?) Crocodile Maths Exam Question

[Thomas Klemm]

(10-10-2015 09:26 PM)striegel Wrote:  Where is that photo from, Australia?

Yes: Kakadu's Adelaide River

[Thomas Klemm]

(10-09-2015 03:47 PM)Gerald H Wrote:  calculator or pencil & paper?

Using Snell's law we can conclude that we deal with two similar triangles with Pythagorean triples (3, 4, 5) and (6, 8, 10). Thus x = 8 is trivial.
The time needed is: \(5\cdot10+4\cdot12=50+48=98\).
I need neither a calculator nor pencil and paper for this.

Cheers
Thomas

PS: I could understand the reaction if this was one of these hard problems.

[ndzied1]

As a point of reference, I gave this problem to my 16 yr. old High School Jr. who is in the AP Calculus BC course.

The first part was trivial. The 2nd part took < 5 minutes. He said he used a calculator to do the square root and a multiply he could have done quickly by hand anyway. And he even go the Tenths of a second part...

He thought the author of the article should be reprimanded for not using the term "Crocodile Tears".

[striegel]

(10-11-2015 12:32 AM)Thomas Klemm Wrote:  ...
The time needed is: \(5\cdot10+4\cdot12=50+48=89\).
...

Should be 98 instead of 89.

[Thomas Klemm]

(10-11-2015 11:09 PM)striegel Wrote:  Should be 98 instead of 89.

Oops. Thanks for the correction.