talkmagic.co.uk

Ok heres the deal, I love riddles and do them all the time hehe. (Yes im a nerd I know ) Anyways I just saw this riddle and it has been bugging me for the past 2 days now because I have no idea what the answer is. So here it is.

There was a five year old boy in math class. The equation on the board read "5x4=". The teacher called on the boy to come up and solve the problem. He wrote "30", and the teacher claimed he was correct. Why is this?

I have come up with so many conclusions to this but they have all been wrong. I really dont know the answer to this. Can someone help me out here please???

Did you see it on the mint? They will take a simple maths problem where logically if they had any sense at all it would add up to something like 90 and they have it up for about three weeks with people phoning up asking if its 90 and its not so they have to flash the answer up on screen for a second and it turns out to be 4240. Its misleading and a waste of money and I hope they get this c*** (not the best) off the tv as soon as possible!

Misanthropy wrote:Did you see it on the mint? They will take a simple maths problem where logically if they had any sense at all it would add up to something like 90 and they have it up for about three weeks with people phoning up asking if its 90 and its not so they have to flash the answer up on screen for a second and it turns out to be 4240. Its misleading and a waste of money and I hope they get this c*** (not the best) off the tv as soon as possible!

huh???? I got this from penguinmagic.com actually
I dont know what you meant there sorry.

sorry its a crappy tv quiz show over here

Actually, on this one I have to agree with you Misanthropy - that maths quiz is pointless because they say "Work out the answer, think it through" but the actuall correct answers are wrong! I mean, are you just supposed to take pot shots at it in the hope that you get it right?!?!?

But back on topic...anyway, well, that one sure sounds familiar. I'll give it a think over, try and come up with an answer. Probably won't though, I'm often fairly useless with maths and riddles .

TylerD wrote:There was a five year old boy in math class. The equation on the board read "5x4=". The teacher called on the boy to come up and solve the problem. He wrote "30", and the teacher claimed he was correct. Why is this?

X is also a Roman numeral

Sorry but i don't see what the roman numeral has to do with it....can you enlighten me?.

does anyone have the proper answer? This is really frustrating...i have everyone in work thinking about it and we are nowhere near an answer...

Grrrr!!...

Thanks in advance...

youvemetbob wrote:Sorry but i don't see what the roman numeral has to do with it

Groan!

What's 5x4, and what does X represent in Roman numerals? Forget math and think outside the box.

I agree with Tomo! This is probably the answer. The same as those rubbish quiz TV shows come up with.

i did think of something like that but then it makes no sense at all..

it would just read 5, 10, 4, equals, and not 5 times 4 equals...making no sense at all...

the x cant mean a times sign and a number 10 at the same time....neither to an adult or a five year old...

any other suggestions for an answer

your tone isn't appreciated either....there was no call for it...manners cost nothing my friend....

thank you

Is that what those shows (Quizmania excluded) use then? So it's not just pot shots...ah ok then, that makes things a little better I suppose.

Sorry! i was not rude to anyone

stephenmagic wrote:Sorry! i was not rude to anyone

I think he meant me. Unfortunately, written English isn't the best way to convey a tongue in cheek

Those quiz shows do this kind of "maths but it's not maths" nonsense all the time, which is where I got the idea. Five fours are twenty. X is the Roman numeral for ten. It's more canonical than mathematical.

In the original question, was it shown as 5X4= or 5x4=? Roman numerals would all be capitals (wouldn't they?) so a lower case x wouldn't mean 10. I remember a 'clue' in an old whodunit where the numbers 0,6,500 were involved and the translation to Roman numerals spelled OVID. Can't for the life of me remember why it was important to the story, probably a character's name, but it was quite a few years ago.

Are we talking codes, nothing to do with numerical values etc?

is it possible the boys age has some relevence to the answer? why are they stating the boys age? it must have something to do with it