@mcfate I think this is the trap - you are supposed to assume that it is 90° but it is not. @sjvn

@ToruOkada @mcfate @sjvn
McFate.... For Shame... 🤣😊😉

@InvaderGzim @ToruOkada @sjvn

That's a cheap trick, if you ask me.

What are we teaching here? "The teacher can't be trusted"?

@mcfate My math teacher loved to do this in exam questions - some freehand drawing that implied a simple, but wrong answer. I think it is a valid lesson - always check whether the "common sense" solution holds true. @InvaderGzim @sjvn

@ToruOkada @InvaderGzim @sjvn

This isn't a "freehand" drawing, and "the teacher will deceive you about things" is a BAD "math" lesson.

x = "Stop fucking with people"

@ToruOkada @InvaderGzim @sjvn

This kind of sad bullshit is what makes people hate math, and decide they're "bad at it", you know.

@ToruOkada @InvaderGzim @sjvn

Imagine a music teacher who threw in some bizarre clef just to see if you were paying attention.

Think that would enhance your appreciation for music?

@mcfate My music teacher taught us Schönberg's twelve-tone music. Even this did not kill my music appreciation. @InvaderGzim @sjvn

@ToruOkada @InvaderGzim @sjvn

"TAUGHT" you. DIdn't TRICK you with it.

I'm sorry, this problem is horsecrap, and whoever came up with it should teach phys ed.

@ToruOkada @mcfate @InvaderGzim "Schönberg's twelve-tone music" I am so sorry,

@sjvn Traumatic as a teenager, I can tell you. I blame all my current neurotic behaviors on this. @mcfate @InvaderGzim

@ToruOkada @sjvn @mcfate
The NYS Regents exams I had to take every year of high school math made me very untrusting.
Parallel lines are parallel only off marked.... Perpendicular lines the same...
Two angles given? The third is what it is... Drawings matter only what was actuality there...

🤷🏻‍♂️

@InvaderGzim @ToruOkada @sjvn

The way a Regents exam is conducted isn't a teaching exercise.

Like I said, I question whether this problem is about complementary angles or its a trust exercise.

If it's the former, there's no loss in drawing it accurately instead of deceptively.

If it's the latter, a fair warning is in order.

@mcfate Well, if it was his plan, it had the opposite effect on me. @InvaderGzim @sjvn

@ToruOkada @InvaderGzim @sjvn

Well, that makes ONE of you, then.

@mcfate @sjvn math teacher would say it's visual deception ...

@mcfate @sjvn

While I don't disagree this is a cheap trick, I do have to say I remember encountering trick drawings like that on the SATs and other standardized tests.

@misterfive @sjvn

Just because people do something that sucks doesn't make it suck any less.

Are we teaching math? Or paranoia?

@misterfive @sjvn

This is really the question.

Is the goal of the problem to test whether the student understands complementary angles, or to instruct the student that the teacher is going to try to make you look stupid if they can?

@mcfate @sjvn

We were told the goal was to not make assumptions. If there's no right angle indicator, don't assume the angle. Fair enough. I doubt I could tell the difference between 89° or 91° from 90° by eye myself.

@misterfive @sjvn

If you were told that explicitly, fine. There's no such instruction on this problem, however.

@misterfive @mcfate @sjvn

"no right angle indicator" is the key. A math test would have it if it was a given.

@mcfate No, you're not. :-) But, I liked the joke enough I shared it anyway. And, we are not alone.

@sjvn

The joke was funny, but the actual "math" problem (or "trust exercise"?) is a stinker, in my opinion.

@mcfate

Nope...saw that before I read the rest of the text on the meme

@sjvn

@mcfate @sjvn Professional math tutor here.

If this is a Geometry class problem, the only thing you're supposed to assume is A) we're working in a flat plane (Euclidian) and B) the bottom line is straight.

So you need to figure out the interior angle of the left triangle is 80°, then the supplementary angle of 100°, then the remaining interior angle of the next triangle is 45°, and finally the supplementary exterior angle there is 135°.

Yes, this is one of those "trap" problems.

@TBBW1 @sjvn

And "trap problems" suck rocks because they make people feel "too stupid to do math" and that "math sucks" and that they "hate math".

Good work, if you're not interested in repeat business when it comes to tutoring.

It honestly shocks me how many people are supportive of this completely worthless approach to math instruction.

But hey, go ahead, teach people that math is about tricks and traps, and that the teacher is hoping to make you look dumb.

@mcfate @sjvn Don't look at me, I didn't write the problem. I'm just the guy who has to deal with the fallout of poorly labeled/drawn problems like this.

@TBBW1 @sjvn

This particular problem is just a symptom of a bigger problem, that of people being functionally innumerate, and happy that way, because their belief they "just can't get math", guided by problems like this particular one.

What I object to is people using the existence of the issue to justify the existence of the issue.

@TBBW1 @sjvn

What allows you to assume that ANY lines are straight? Is that a "given"? I don't see it.