Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for April 13, 2017

Why do I care? Who is Mr Jones?

5:40

If Calvin is driving, at what time will he run into Mr. Jones? Alternate question, at what time will he turn into Spiff and leave the planet?

Is this eastbound or westbound? 5AM or 5PM? Who’s protesting their latest great crisis in the middle of the freeway today? Is there a slight hint of mist on the road (I’m in SoCal). Any police chases? Is there a presidential visit scheduled? What freeways are closed for filming?

Now calculate Calvin’s MPH.

But they have NOT given traffic, Calvin

Pass? PASS ? We all know it’s going to be a big KABLOOIE

I always hated story problems, particularly the one about the bathtub where the water runs IN at one velocity and OUT at another, and how long before it runs over? As a plumber’s daughter, I knew that they are designed not to do that, these days. Well, yes, after a couple of days, if you walk out and just leave it. My teacher didn’t appreciate my explaining that, so dad called her and told her all about it.

After that we got the one with the two trains that leave the station at the same time.

OMG, I still get nervous reading math questions like this! Wish I had been sharp enough to come up with a witty answer like Calvin! LOL

I always knew those math questions were stupid trick questions…

These things have me nightmares. My brother loved them. Go figure.

This is where he finds out that the teacher has a sense of humor.

And when has anyone had to know this in real life. When in real life have you started from your house at 35MPH without changing speed or taking a single turn?

Simple algebra first thing in the morning? Yucko!

Solving relatively (algebra for a first-grader? Yikes.) simple problems like this is good prep for solving real-world problems. If everybody felt like those disparaging this kind of problem-solving, the GPS you rely on would not work, among many other things. And if anyone was wondering, 5:40.

Ok. How many stopped to figure 20 till 6?

40t +35t =50 (t=travel time in hours) t= 50/75 t= 2/3 travel time = 2/3 of an hour, 40 min. 5:40. QED

Q: How many mathematicians does it take to change a lite bulb?

Now wait just a second.

Calvin can’t drive!

When the Rubiks Cube came out my father in law sat down with pencil and paper and solved it that way. Me, the only way I can solve it is to peel off the stickers.

I still don’t know how to do this kind of problem. I wish someone would post the algorithm. I can think of how to get the rate per minute for each traveler, and from that, how long it will take each one to go the whole 50 miles. But I can’t think how to compute when they will pass each other. There’s got to be a better and faster way to figure it than trial and error on number lines.

My wife and I leave home on a weekday at 9am, headed for the same office building. She is driving a car, there is a single highway to the destination with a speed limit of 45mph. The total distance is 7.75 miles. I am on a bicycle. Which traveler arrives at the destination first?

Answer: The bicycle arrives at 9:36. The car arrives at 9:45.

You know, I sure as heck didn’t get ANY of these math problems when I was in first grade. It was always addition and subtraction stuff.

I loathe this kind of math problems. I’ve always relied on my life experience. Solving Calvin’s problem, I figured 5:40 simply by calculating the half way which would be 5:30 and since Calvin was traveling 5 mph faster, I figured he’d be 5 minutes faster…and Mr. Jones 5 minutes slower….well I was almost right, just 5 minutes short of the correct answer which according to the mathematicians in here is 5:40. I saw one problem-solving steps – wow, simple…but I could never calculate that way. My brain just is not wired to.

“Everytime I see a math word problem it looks like this: if I have 10 ice cubes and you have 11 apples. How many pancakes will fit on the roof? answer:Purple because aliens don’t wear hats” – Google Search

“You leave the Pennsylvania Station at a quarter to four.” How long does it take you to reach Baltimore?

Don’t give Calvin any ideas about driving his mom’s car. And if you drive under 55 miles per hour all the other drivers will honk and curse at you.

A plane crashes and every single person dies. But there are two survivors. Why did they survive?

I hate Maths, I was always bad at it. Still am.

xxx

A pretty advance math problem for a first grader. I couldn’t figure out this kind of problem until I got to high school.

Can a 6 years old kid have a license?

Should be Calvin and Higgs….There at least eleven possible solutions to this problem based on the locations of the bosons which are impossible to determine due to the pinhead voting preferences of the bubba factor which may account for the "Dark – matter’ which permeates eternity!

The ‘Beverly hillbillies’ IS starting to make more sense…and so is The WWF’s Battle royal’s…. Trump won in case you didn’t know…..