Question help please..

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nearly there
Posts: 75
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 11:35 am

Question help please..

Post by nearly there »

I know this should be very easy, but I have a mental block whether the answer is 1 or 2- can anyone help?
I'm not sure if the 2nd turn needed to get it back to where it started counts or not...

"A box has a rectangular lid- in how many ways can the lid be turned so that it still fits the box?"

I need to buy the answer book I think...!
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Question help please..

Post by mystery »

Well it's a bad question because a square is a type of rectangle, and this would give you a different answer from an oblong.

My guess is the question-writer is just thinking of an oblong, and that the answer is 1, but I'm not sure whether they are looking for 1 or 2 as the answer either.

I wouldn't buy the answer book, I'd buy a different book of questions! So much rubbish out there!!
flicka
Posts: 79
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2010 6:53 pm

Re: Question help please..

Post by flicka »

On the other hand they might be referring to rotational symmetry, and a rectangle has rotational symmetry of order 2.
Badly worded question there.
menagerie
Posts: 577
Joined: Thu May 26, 2011 9:37 pm

Re: Question help please..

Post by menagerie »

There are lots of badly worded questions out there. My son had school homework today on number patterns & sequencing, asking how many more turns the sequences had to go through before reaching 2000. He said 4 because he took the word 'before' literally and the number 2000 wasn't reached until 5th turn. But I bet he'd have been marked wrong if he hadn't explained his reasoning.
nearly there
Posts: 75
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 11:35 am

Re: Question help please..

Post by nearly there »

Thanks for your replies- I have to admit I didn't realise a square was a type of rectangle when I posted, so it is even more ambiguous than I first thought!

I had thought these various practice papers would be infallible, but I am learning this isn't always the case. The trouble is that DD has taken to occasionally adding a new box on the answer sheet saying "well, I think the exam people got this one wrong so I added my own..."- she had better not do that in the real thing :roll:
yoyo123
Posts: 8099
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: East Kent

Re: Question help please..

Post by yoyo123 »

a square is a special form of rectangle but for the age group at which this is aimed I would suggest it means the "normal " rectangle ie sides not all equal length, 4 right angles.

Some questions are very badly worded, I agree.
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