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From: rrwood@contact.uucp (roy wood)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.misc,ut.general,uw.general,uw.math.grad,york.general
Subject: Subtle Math Questions
Message-ID: <1991Apr21.142443.2736@contact.uucp>
Date: 21 Apr 91 14:24:43 GMT
Reply-To: rrwood@contact.uucp (roy wood)
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Organization: Contact Public Unix BBS. Toronto, Canada.
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I'm collecting a list of subtle math questions designed to stump high-school
mathematics teachers.  For example, the question "why, when you are dividing
by a fraction, do you invert it and multiply?" is typical of the sort of
thing I'm interested in.  The idea is not to focus on an extremely difficult
or obscure mathematical topic, but to come up with a question that relates to
a simple high-school level topic, seems innocent, and hopefully questions
something no-one ever bothers to ask about.
 
If you have a good question along this line, please e-mail it to me.  I'll
post a summary of the responses to these groups in a week or two.
 
Thanks,
 
-Roy Wood (rrwood@contact.uucp)