Peanuts by Charles Schulz for December 04, 2015

I don’t think her education was exactly setting any records.

I don’t remember if I ever had to do this kind of word problem. If I did I probably blotted out the nightmare.

140 miles, Patty.

140?

A to B=140, B to C=130, C to D=120

32

X+X+10+X+20=3903X+30=3903X=360X=120

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHH!

That looked more like a logic problem than a math problem.

Who’s that other kid?

42

Patty, I feel your pain. This is when I lost my way too.

My younger daughter, at 10, is better at math word problems than I could ever have dreamed of being. I’m excellent at math; just not word problems.

I always loved that Schulz gave problems that could actually be solved in his strips.

a b c d-———390————|—-x—-|—y—|—z—-|

x = y + 10y = z + 10 —→ z = y – 10x + y + z = 390

y + 10 + y + y -10 = 3903y = 390

x = 140y = 130z = 120

AB = 140, BC = 130, CD =120

“ZZZZZZZZ – I’M AWAKE!”

Roy looked odd without his camp hat on. Wonder if he was related to Dagwood.

Since I decided not to drive, the distance is zero!

I don’t mind this type of question. It might actually have some practical application in life. I hated the ones where I had to keep finding X. If they kept losing it, it’s their responsibility to find it.

An easy problem if you know algebra. A nightmare if you don’t. I remember getting questions like this in the second grade, where they’re full-on nightmare. Fortunately, my teacher made them optional, but they were still in the book.

140 miles

Sounds like a case for Tracer Bullet.

120 is the C to D distance. A to B is 20 miles longer, therefore 140 miles. Solving for the CD distance is necessary, since the other distances were expressed in relation to it, but if you stop at that you make a common mistake, doing the bulk of the work nessary to solve, but quitting before answering the question that was asked.

Solving for X is good, but it isn’t the complete problem. You all stopped at the distance between C & D. You did not go on to answer the original question which is the distance between A & B. 140 is correct.

Those kind of math questions in class, I just took the “zero” on every time. They scared me… Usually they involved trains, though.

I did all the “math” and ended up where I started… nowhere.

If I’m driving from town A to town D why am I going through town B first? Shouldn’t I be going through town A first?

I wondered why my word problems started out with “A train leaves Penn Station at 3:45 heading for Baltimore …” until I realized that my math teacher was a Glenn Miller fan.

ironically I’ve never had this type of math problem in real life after school, work place or anywhere…I do however use lots of geometry and algebra.

Who are these people who name their towns A, B, C, and D? ;-)

Gaaa! Not word problems! Anything but word problems!!!

Eat some ice cream real fast Patty, and you will get a brain freeze!

After it thaws out, you’ll be just fine…

Yep, I can really identify with Patty in this storyline.

Hopefully, I won’t have to do Maths again.

xxx

AB = 140 miles, BC = 130 miles, CD = 120 miles——which totals 390 miles

Teacher: and as you all now, if x+2=5, what does x equal?Peppermint Patty: I’m awake ma’am! The answer is 12!Teacher: no, Patricia, the answer is 3Peppermint Patty: what room is this?Teacher: algebra, Patricia.Peppermint Patty: I should have known this was the wrong school!

Simple set of equations with 3 unknowns. AB=140 Miles

@Snoopy_Fan

Thanks for your comment on Sunday.

Have a nice weekend.

♥♥♥

Personally, I used a simpler method to solve …

I divided 390 by 3 to get the equal distances between each pair (A-B, B-C, C-D).

Then I added 10 to the A-B part, and subtracted 10 from C-D, according to the problem. So …

390 / 3 = 130 … 130 + 10 = 140

i always got dizzy trying to do these types of problems. than my brain would get tired from doing all those calculated calculations and i would close my eyes and imagine what would happen if i flunked the test and immediately i was filled with an adrenaline rush that would zip me through the problems with a speed equivalent to a speeding bullet. still got the answers wrong because i would have a flat tire just a few miles into the journey and would have to stop at the gas station (back then gas stations did mechanical work) which added time to the journey and because it was longer it caused the kids to start complaining and crying, so after getting the tire fixed we’d just go back home and take the bus and let the bus driver worry about this sort of thing.

150 miles. ;)