Comments on: Comments on 17834

Post number 17834

bloggboy — Fri, 14 Jun 2002 18:54:16 -0800

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.

By: geoff.

geoff. — Fri, 14 Jun 2002 20:17:17 -0800

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.

By: geoff.

geoff. — Fri, 14 Jun 2002 20:21:52 -0800

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".

By: nikzhowz

nikzhowz — Fri, 14 Jun 2002 20:41:16 -0800

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].

By: ODiV

ODiV — Fri, 14 Jun 2002 21:15:13 -0800

"how many Chevy's will he have to steal" !? How many Chevy's what? Car radios? Steering wheel covers?

By: wackybrit

wackybrit — Sat, 15 Jun 2002 05:51:48 -0800

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 ;-)

By: meep

meep — Sat, 15 Jun 2002 06:49:56 -0800

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.)

By: Samsonov14

Samsonov14 — Sat, 15 Jun 2002 07:14:08 -0800

Oh, you poor nerds. *shakes head sadly*

By: mrhappy

mrhappy — Sat, 15 Jun 2002 09:02:33 -0800

$65 a trick? Damn! Could somebody please give me Rufus's number?

By: geoff.

geoff. — Sun, 16 Jun 2002 00:23:11 -0800

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

By: geoff.

geoff. — Sun, 16 Jun 2002 00:25:11 -0800

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.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Sun, 16 Jun 2002 05:07:55 -0800

> 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.

By: L. Ron McKenzie

L. Ron McKenzie — Sun, 16 Jun 2002 07:24:31 -0800

My hometown makes Reuters! Exciting stuff. My mom's a teacher...I gotta get the gossip on this one...

By: tsarfan

tsarfan — Sun, 16 Jun 2002 14:12:46 -0800

if math was taught like this i may have learned something.