Many of us learn early in our academic years that order does not matter for multiplication. No matter how the operands are arranged, the answer’s always the same.
Recently, a user took to Reddit to share that a multiplication question answered by his P3 nephew was marked wrong.
The boy’s answer of ‘5 x 8’ was not accepted, but instead, ‘8 x 5’ was.
Source: Reddit
Redditors were confused by the logic behind the marking since multiplication is commutative. In other words, both orders will arrive at the same answer — 40.
On Wednesday (9 May), Reddit u/Lhxlhx took to the Singapore Subreddit to share a “mistake” they found in their P3 nephew’s workbook.
The question in the workbook read:
Mrs Kim gave 5kg of rice to each family.
She gave rice to 8 families.
How much rice did she give in total?
The nephew answered ‘5 x 8 = 40’, which followed the order in which the information was presented.
However, his answer was marked wrong.
Instead, the teacher wrote that the correct answer was ‘8 x 5’ — essentially the boy’s answer, but in reversed order.
The teacher also pointed out that the boy had forgotten to include the measurement units in his final answer — kilogram.
The Redditor said that while they understood why their nephew was penalised for omitting the measurement units, they couldn’t comprehend why the order in which the operands appear was wrong since both arrived at the same answer.
In the comments, the OP shared that they weren’t too concerned since it was just their nephew’s homework, but said they wanted to share since they found it funny.
The teacher’s logic left most Redditors confused.
This Redditor guessed that the teacher in question must have been overworked and had marked the nephew’s homework in “autopilot mode”.
Source: Reddit
Another Redditor explained that in foundational Math, students are taught to associate the first operand with ‘groups’ and the second with quantity.
Source: Reddit
Another user provided a similar explanation but phrased it slightly differently.
This Redditor said he found the nephew’s experience extremely relatable, as he too was once penalised for using a ‘shorter’ method, even though the answer was the same.
Source: Reddit
While we’ll never know the teacher’s reasoning for penalising the boy, this math question is perhaps a reminder that sometimes, the process is as, if not more important than, the result.
However, the silver lining to this case is that the question popped up in the kid’s homework and not in his exams, or he would’ve lost out on some precious marks.
Do you agree with the teacher’s marking? Let us know in the comments below.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from Reddit.
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