1960's 'O' Level Math's question

[Soup Dragon]

Listening to BBC Southern Counties this morning they were talking about GCSE exams against the old 'O' level. Apparently they gave an old paper from the 1960's to current GSCE students and most of the students couldn't even answer the easiest question, calculators are not allowed!!!

The easiest question on the paper was:
If a man walks 3.5 miles in 44 minutes, how many feet does he walk in 25 seconds.

To help find the answer I can tell you that 1 mile = 1760 yards, and 1 yard = 3 feet.

If you want to have a go please PM me your answer.

[dudey]

I've had a go and it certainly wasn't easy!!! I refuse to believe that this was really the easiest question on the paper. The problem with it is mainly that the metric system completely rules the curriculum now, and were it not for a great primary school teacher i had who decided to teach us some basics about imperial measures, then i'd perhaps not even be able tackle this question!

It's a tricky question that only needs common sense for you to know what to do, but without a calculator there's lots of arithmetic invloved and therefore lots of places to go wrong. Nonetheless i've handed my answer in to the TOSA!

[dudey]

Division is harder in my head - I just have to picture the working I'd do on paper a lot of the time.

I'm the same, but this question has so many different parts to it I'd find it near impossible to do without a piece of paper!

[tubelover17061]

Post deleted

Never mind maths, we need some questions on how to read English.

He asked us to PM him the answer.

And are you having trouble with your account?

[mullardo]

are you asuming he is walking at a constant speed?

Also is this 25 seconds during the 44 minutes or after because if it's after he might not want to go further than 3.5 miles and might stop and not go any further

[dudey]

are you asuming he is walking at a constant speed?

Also is this 25 seconds during the 44 minutes or after because if it's after he might not want to go further than 3.5 miles and might stop and not go any further

when you work out the answer, you'd be able to pick it apart further. believe me.

[Soup Dragon]

are you asuming he is walking at a constant speed?

Also is this 25 seconds during the 44 minutes or after because if it's after he might not want to go further than 3.5 miles and might stop and not go any further

Yes you can assume a constant speed and work out the average number of feet covered per second, that's probably the easiest way to solve the puzzle.

This question is proving that we have some very bright people on the forum, so far I've had 4 correct answers and even the wrong answers are quite close.

[mullardo]

Oh *%$£$£* there are 60 seconds in a minute not 100

[tubeguru]

Oh *%$£$£* there are 60 seconds in a minute not 100

There goes a man who spends way too much time looking at dot matrix screens on the tube ...

[editorsfoot]

What really annoys me about all these questions is that they are examing different things to what is taught today. I'm 35 and have never been taught imperial measurements and today even the motorways are metric if you look close enough. Somebody gave me a 1950s O level history paper once and I couldnt do most of that as it wasnt my period. All things like this prove is that schools teach different things today.

Rant over!!!