I can't figure this out!
Help please!
The Problem
At the local park, I saw a man was quizzing a boy with some simple arithmetic problems, and the boy seemed to be getting them all correct. He asked the boy, "32 + 5", and the boy answered, "37". The man then asked the boy, "19 - 6", and the boy answered, "13". The man continued and asked the boy "24 + 13" and the boy answered, "37".
He then posed the last two problems, and asked the boy "45 - 8", but the boy responded "47". Weird, I thought it was 37. The man then asked "43 + 12", and the boy responded "45". That's weird, too; the answer should be 55! Much to my amazement, the man told the boy he got all of the problems correct, and when I noticed what the boy was wearing, I also concluded that the boy got all of the problems correct. Why is he getting the correct answers? Hint: Sunday.
He was wearing a football jersey and was talking about yardage gained or lost and what yard line the players ended up on.
weird
To understand why the boy is getting the correct answers, we need to look for a pattern or system that he is using. The hint provided, "Sunday," suggests that we should focus on the days of the week.
If we assign numbers to the days of the week, starting with Sunday as 1 and continuing in order, we can see the pattern the boy is using.
Let's convert the arithmetic problems into numerical expressions:
- 32 + 5 = 37
- 19 - 6 = 13
- 24 + 13 = 37
- 45 - 8 = 47
- 43 + 12 = 45
Now, let's convert the answer to the corresponding day of the week:
- 37 corresponds to Thursday
- 13 corresponds to Monday
- 37 corresponds to Thursday
- 47 corresponds to Saturday
- 45 corresponds to Thursday
As we can see, the boy associates the numerical answers with the days of the week.
Therefore, based on the answer choices, we can conclude that the boy is answering based on the day of the week that corresponds to the numerical answer. In other words, he is associating the numerical answer with a specific day of the week.