thescrappyhomeschooler Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 This is a question in the test prep book I bought for my son. The multiple choice answers are 12, 2, 1, and 0. So, which answer is correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 not 12 and not 2. Depends on how "side" is defined. 1 side, if a side can be a curved line. 0, if "side" means a straight line. infinity, if you approximate the circle by straight sections :D This question is stupid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrappyhomeschooler Posted December 1, 2012 Author Share Posted December 1, 2012 I agree the question is stupid. There are different answers depending on how you define side. I hate stuff like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKim Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 This is a question in the test prep book I bought for my son. The multiple choice answers are 12, 2, 1, and 0. So, which answer is correct? Two. The inside and the outside. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 This is why I hate test prep books. Unless they're using questions from actual tests, which are very carefully screened for being nonambiguous, they tend to come up with nonsense like this. There's a joke about how many sides a circle has. The answer is two, an inside and an outside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolly Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 The "correct" mathematical answer is zero. I personally like the answer two better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theYoungerMrsWarde Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 Ds says "it's round; just round." I guess that means 0. Dh says 1. I like the inside and outside answer, :lol: but dh pointed out that that applies to all shapes. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrappyhomeschooler Posted December 1, 2012 Author Share Posted December 1, 2012 Yeah, the test booklet answer sheet says 0, but I still think it's a stupid question. If you google the question you get many different answers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belacqua Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 I asked my future math major, and he said, "Infinitely many." He clarified (ha) that it is the limit as n goes to infinity of an n-gon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLDebbie Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 This is why I hate test prep books. Unless they're using questions from actual tests, which are very carefully screened for being nonambiguous, they tend to come up with nonsense like this. Unfortunately, some of the actual tests have questions as dumb. Here in Florida there were several questions on last year's FCAT equally ambiguous or outright wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy in NH Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 2 - An inside and an outside! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 Isn't that the question that the door asked Luna Lovegood to answer in the last Harry Potter book to get into her dorm? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misty.warden Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 Ah test prep booklets. They really need to list curriculum that's being tested on because two math books might define it differently, or not at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K&Rs Mom Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 I'm so glad I'm not the only one who guessed two (inside & outside). I could see arguments for 2, 1 or 0 - can't make 12 work in my head. I agree that it's a stupid question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misty.warden Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 Isn't that the question that the door asked Luna Lovegood to answer in the last Harry Potter book to get into her dorm? The riddle was "Which came first: the phoenix or the flame?" and Luna said a circle has no end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
renmew Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 The textbook series I use in my school would say 0 sides for a circle. Some kids have trouble with that, so I began explaining that when they are older and talking about shapes and sides, they're usually talking about polygons, which only have straight sides/edges. Circles are not polygons, and follow a completely different set of rules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErinE Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 I asked my future math major, and he said, "Infinitely many." He clarified (ha) that it is the limit as n goes to infinity of an n-gon. My first thought was infinitely many. As you add additional equal sides to a shape, the shape becomes more and more circular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peplophoros Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 So funny--this same question was posed to my 1st grade class. I thought of infinite, tiny sides, but couldn't express this in words, so I drew a line just touching the edge of the circle, trying to demonstrate that at some tiny point, there was a "side" and that the whole circle could be made from them. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 The textbook series I use in my school would say 0 sides for a circle. Some kids have trouble with that, so I began explaining that when they are older and talking about shapes and sides, they're usually talking about polygons, which only have straight sides/edges. Circles are not polygons, and follow a completely different set of rules. That would have been my thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolly Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 The textbook series I use in my school would say 0 sides for a circle. Some kids have trouble with that, so I began explaining that when they are older and talking about shapes and sides, they're usually talking about polygons, which only have straight sides/edges. Circles are not polygons, and follow a completely different set of rules. Yep! And, for those who want the answer to be infinitely many, a polygon with an infinite number of sides still would not be a circle. It would be always approaching the circular shape but never reaching it. In order to be a circle, it would have to be a curved line. Polygons are made up of line segments, which by definition must be straight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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