June 14, 2002

6:54 PM

Pimps and Gangs Subtracted From Math Test
"Rufus is a pimp for three girls. If the price is $65 per trick, how many tricks per day must each girl turn to support Rufus' $800 per day crack habit?" So reads a math test from a now suspended Canadian teacher, apparently modeled after this joke.
posted by bloggboy (13 comments total)

t = tricks, g = girl

3*65*g=800 --> 195*g=800
800/195 = g ---> ~4.1 tricks per girl

So I guess the answer would be 5 tricks per girl. Since you can't pull 4.1 tricks.
posted by geoff. at 8:17 PM on June 14, 2002

Oh number 5 looked fun so I'm going to do that one too.

5. Willie gets $200 for stealing a BMW, $50 for a Chevy and $100 for a
4x4. If he has stolen 2 BMW's and 3 4x4's, how many Chevy's will he
have to steal to make $800?

2*200+3*100+Chevy*50 = 800
Chevy*50 = 800-700 --> 100
Chevy = 100/50
Chevy = 2

YEA!!!!

For some reason I have this weird feeling that I screwed up. It's called the law of "Doing simple math on a public forum leads to stupid mistakes".
posted by geoff. at 8:21 PM on June 14, 2002

This story sounds familiar, I remember a similar brouhaha just a few months ago. Anyway, the joke seems to be popular amongst socially clueless math teachers -- here's a couple from Lancaster, Texas and Chicago, Illinois [Google cached so you can scroll to the highlights].
posted by nikzhowz at 8:41 PM on June 14, 2002

"how many Chevy's will he have to steal" !?

How many Chevy's what? Car radios? Steering wheel covers?
posted by ODiV at 9:15 PM on June 14, 2002

geoff: I see you're used to the algebraic method.. good for complex problems, but in this case it's easier to just say 800 / 65 / 3 ;-)
posted by wackybrit at 5:51 AM on June 15, 2002

Speaking as a math teacher, for those scared of getting the wrong answer, there's a simple thing to do: check your answer by sticking the number back into the equation and see if it works (doesn't work in the case of the 4.1 tricks, but maybe that .1 of a trick is a quick blowjob...but it also could just be a time-average, so that every day a girl does three tricks and every ten days does an extra one.)
posted by meep at 6:49 AM on June 15, 2002

Oh, you poor nerds.
*shakes head sadly*
posted by Samsonov14 at 7:14 AM on June 15, 2002

$65 a trick? Damn! Could somebody please give me Rufus's number?
posted by mrhappy at 9:02 AM on June 15, 2002

This thread is dead now, but 4.1 was just me rounding. That's why I had the tilde. The correct answer is of course:

4.1025641025641025641025641025641
posted by geoff. at 12:23 AM on June 16, 2002

Oh yeah meep. Give your students nice whole numbers so they know if they're right or not. Nothing more frustrating then doing long algebra problems and having it come out as a weird decimal number. This is especially good for answers that can't be checked as easy as just plugging in.
posted by geoff. at 12:25 AM on June 16, 2002

> Since you can't pull 4.1 tricks.

That depends on what a "trick" is. Maybe 4.1 is four screws and a quick handjob.
posted by pracowity at 5:07 AM on June 16, 2002

My hometown makes Reuters! Exciting stuff.

My mom's a teacher...I gotta get the gossip on this one...
posted by L. Ron McKenzie at 7:24 AM on June 16, 2002

if math was taught like this i may have learned something.
posted by tsarfan at 2:12 PM on June 16, 2002