The end of the world cometh - 4 boney dudes on horseback spotted by Daily Mail readers...

[tim.....]

you're right sorry

>

[tim.....]

You are misunderstanding the way that "proof" in mathematics works.

You have been asked for a proof, so in order to get the marks you first have to find something that you can "prove".

Simply using the equation to solve n=10 isn't it, because that is not a proof.

And as the equation resolved down to n=10 the thing that you have, that can be proved, is that n=10 is, in fact, the solution to the narrative part of the question.

Thus there becomes a requirement to prove that n=10 solves the sweet problem, because that's all you have that you can use as the result of a mathematical proof.

Correct, so it's can't be the solution to the question that gets you the marks

tim

[Farmer Giles]

That's ok, I appreciate your reply.

It's a confusing issue, and I think the problem could have been put in a less confusing way. At first I simply found n - which was not the question, as you quite rightly pointed out.

[John Rumm]

Well actually that was the accusation I was levelling at you[1] ;-) Although I suspect we are both singing from the same hymn sheet - but something has been lost in translation.

[1] Due to your response suggesting that one needs to prove n = 10

Indeed.

Farmer Giles correctly provided a proof IMHO - i.e. derived the required equation algebraically from the source equations extracted from the problem description.

Agreed.

Not really - you can make the proof without ever finding n (which can also be -9, a valid solution to the equation, although makes no sense in the context of the problem)

I am not sure about that - you can't prove that n = 10, since its not the only valid answer. The best you can say about 10 is that it is one possible solution for n.

Finding any number of solutions is not usually an adequate mathematical proof (unless proving a negative of course! I suspect that Andrew Wiles may be a tad upset if you can find integer values for a, b, & c where a^3 = b^3 + c^3 )

Which is what I was saying!

[tony sayer]

In article , Brian-Gaff scribeth thus

If it were my younger daughter she'd have simply scoffed the lot and that would have been that..

Then there would have been a cat fight when the older found out she'd nicked them and she'd have her fingers down younger's throat getting her to regurgitate them;!..

Girlies, sooo very sweet;!...

[ARW]

I wonder if there is a GCSE Religious Education question that asks you to name the 4 boney dudes on horseback (ISTR that only two of them are boney).

[Vir Campestris]

Drippings? WTF??

Oh, chippings. You mean gravel?

... or do you?

I worked out n=10 on the way down to the shower. And I'm not very awake at that time of day...

Andy

[John Rumm]

No, I did not write - I scanned and OCRed the graphic copy of the paper for those who wanted a text version...

OCR remember?

Its the way I would read it. However it does not matter since the questioner is defining the parameters. They could say that that the ingredients for concrete are milk, flour, chocolate chips, and evo stick

- it would not change the fundamentals of the aptitudes they are testing.

Which, as several have pointed out, was not an answer to the question posed (nor required for its complete answer)