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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 (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

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