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High Number of Adults Unable to do Basic Mathematical Tasks

posted by mrpg on Friday March 16 2018, @12:35AM   
from the ∫-√(1+[f(x)']²)dx dept.

"exec" writes:

Suppose, a litre of cola costs US$3.15. If you buy one third of a litre of cola, how much would you pay?

The above may seem like a rather basic question. Something that you would perhaps expect the vast majority of adults to be able to answer? Particularly if they are allowed to use a calculator.

Unfortunately, the reality is that a large number of adults across the world struggle with even such basic financial tasks (the correct answer is US$1.05, by the way).

[...] In many other countries, the situation is even worse. Four in every ten adults in places like England, Canada, Spain and the US can't make this straightforward calculation – even when they had a calculator to hand. Similarly, less than half of adults in places like Chile, Turkey and South Korea can get the right answer.

-- submitted from IRC

High number of adults unable to do basic mathematical tasks

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Original Submission

• Re:"High Number" of Adults Re:"High Number" of Adults (Score: 5, Interesting) by Fluffeh on Friday March 16 2018, @02:42AM (1 child)

  by Fluffeh (954) on Friday March 16 2018, @02:42AM (#653303) Journal

  you could even get a lot of college grads with questions like that

  I used to work in an area with a lot of forecasters looking after a supply chain. When interviewing applicants for new roles, we would always have a conversation like this:

  "You have an item with a base forecast of 100. What do you get it you apply a 50% uplift to it?"
  "150"
  "Okay, of course, now apply a 50% reduction back to it. What's the forecast?"

  It's truly scary how many people answer with 100 again. And this is for a job where math is supposed to be second nature.

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• Re:"High Number" of Adults (Score: 4, Informative) by TheRaven on Friday March 16 2018, @09:08AM

  by TheRaven (270) on Friday March 16 2018, @09:08AM (#653461) Journal

  That's the problem with running computations in a neural network. I bet if you asked them to apply a 50% reduction to a forecast of 150, they'd be able to give the right answer if you didn't prime them by associating the 50% with 100 and 150.

  --
  sudo mod me up

  Parent