It's shocking and I am appalled by the lack of any basic maths skills in the women candidates.
The one in the board room actually saying without any embaraassment that she was not good at figures but a least she gave it a very bad attempt.
If these women represent some of the most promising business hopefuls this country has to offer, well frankly I am at a loss as to how to adequately express my dismay.
Working out margins and unit prices involves nothing more than simple addition, subtractions and multiplication, all with the aid of a calculator.
From the way they were going on you would have thought they had been asked to differentiate something or similar.
None of them deserve to win for this very reason IMO

A lot of people have been decrying the lack of even basic maths skills in this country for a long time.

Poor numeracy blights the economy and ruins lives.

Universities dumbing down on maths to fill places.

And it goes on and on.

In another thread in another forum here I asked whether people could calculate

3 + 7 x 4

Many couldn't. But I was roundly attacked for pointing out that people didn't understand maths at this level and giving them links where they could improve their maths.

It's a major social problem, and now that poor maths is ingrained in the adult population, even if school education was improved now it is still going to be causing us major problems for a very, very, long time.

I've always been shocked that candidates seem to have no idea of their total profit/loss on the selling tasks. OK Lord Sid might throw in one of his fines to 'fix' the result, but they should know what they spent, how much they sold and for what price - yet so often one teams totals are announced and the other team waits with baited breath even though they should know already if they have beaten the others or not.

I wouldn't say that none of the women deserve to win just because Jenna and Gabrielle (and arguably Jane) are bad at maths. We were shown Katie picking holes in Jenna's incorrect figures, even before the pitch. They're not all unsalvagable.

There does appear to be a serious problem with basic numeracy and maths teaching in the country. However, I wonder how much this sort of scene on The Apprentice reflects the selection of candidates for the programme rather than the general state of numeracy: I feel sure that even today there still are young women in business who are good at the basic sums and the essential awareness of profit and loss in business. But maybe that wouldn't make such good telly and they may not be selected. We have heard hints of that before, from applicants. And a supplementary factor: sometimes things are edited in such a way as to play up something which there may be a bit more to, if we saw the whole process.

"In another thread in another forum here I asked whether people could calculate

3 + 7 x 4"

-----------------------------------

Unfortunately maths isn't as simple as you think and full of wacky contradictions.

3 plus 7 is 10. 10 x 4 is 40.

But it's not. According to Google the answer is 31

https://www.google.com/webhp?complet...w=1100&bih=510


3 + (7 x 4) the answer 31. 7 x 4 being 28 plus the 3 to make 31.

So there you go. My calculator and my brain make it 40, Google makes it 31.

The correct answer is 40. Well it was the last time I added 3 to 7 and then multiplied by 4.

Oh dear, hangs head and weeps ~

I hope you are only pretending to disagree with Goggle ( and the rest of the educated world)

Killjoy

What is 3 + 7 x 4?

I make it 40.

What do you make it?

Type in

3 + 7 x 4

in Google and see what number they give. It's 31, not 40.

Also, I'm no maths expert but a number, say, 4 multiplied by zero can never be zero. It's impossible and yet we're taught that it is zero. This is a nonsense. Once you establish a number in a maths equation you can't pretend it doesn't exist.

BODMAS floopy, BODMAS (31 is correct BTW)

If any person good at maths can tell me how Google comes up with 31 and not 40 and how any number multiplied by zero is zero - I will defer to their expertise! Perhaps maths would be easier if it made some sense in the first place.

In calculations there is an order of preference for evaluating an equation.


The correct way to do the calculation is to imagine it as two separate calculations:

3 + 7 x 4 = 3 + (7 x 4)

= 3 + 28

= 31

Have you ever heard oh BODMAS? The correct answer is 31.

Bodmas is Brackets Other/Over Devision, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction. So whatever order the calculation is in, you calculate by doing the method of which initials is the closest to the front of the word BODMAS.

7-2+6(3-2)

Bracketsodmas

7-2+6

BodmAdditions

7-8

BodmaSubtraction

Answer is minus 1.

"1 is correct BTW"

No, it's not. With respect, it's 40.

Three (hello 3!) plus seven (hi you sexy 7!) make 10. I think we all agree on that. Okay, so you got your nice 10. 10 x 4 is 40. The answer is 40 because Winterfire asked:

3 + 7 x 4.

He/she didn't ask:

3 + (7 x 4)

Hi Floopy

The rule of BODMAS gives the order in which the different functions should be calculated.

Brackets
Of
Division
Multiplication
Addition
Subtraction.

As the formula above uses multiplication and addition you first multiply 7 and 4 (=28) and then add the 3, et voila, 31

Pretty sure you're just a WUM now.

Idiot (well that is your name lol)

You are wrong. Winterfire didn't put any brackets into his maths question therefore the answer is 40, not 31. I know this for a fact because I checked on my calculator. 3 plus 7 times 10 on my calculator is 40. FACT.

Google is wrong, you are wrong.

Well then you don't have a scientific calculator and you need to get an up to date one.

3 + 7 x 4.

BODMAS

M=Multiplication
A=Addition

And for that matter:
B=Brackets
O=Other (Square root signs etc.)
D=Division
S=Subtraction

M is higher in the order then A, so therefore, no matter the written order of the calculation, you do the Multiplication first.

So...

3 + 7 x 4

3 + 28

Answer is 31

If no-one believes me, get a calculator, press in 3 then press the plus button then press 7 then press the x button and then press 4 then press = button. And guess what you get?

40.

Amazing, huh! :P

No you don't.

You need to get rid of your calculator because obviously if it doesn't understand the rules of BODMAS then you need to replace it.

Shellman, the answer is 40, not 31. There are NO BRACKETS in that equation. Look, Winterfire's actual quote:


That makes 40. No brackets. By the way, it's impossible for the question to have two different results.

3 plus (7 times 4) is not 31. Okay it is if you use our understanding of maths but it's not logical. The answer is 40 and can never be 31. Putting part of the question in brackets makes a nonsense out of maths because so-called clever people will argue with you and say "well actually it's 31!" when it's not. It's 40.

You can't have one maths question giving you two different results. It's impossible but this happens in maths if some genius (sarcasm meant) decided to add brackets to the equation!

Charming

There do not need to be any brackets in the formula, you just identify the functions that are in the formula and do them in the BODMAS order.

I learned this at the age of 11.

I have an A in Maths at O-level
I have A Level Maths
I am an accountant

Wouldn’t any figures be provided by those with the ability to do so, the sales or accounts department? Guess it makes better viewing to hang the blame on the poor soul randomly allocated the task and allow them to be seen struggling with the figures.

PS. If you want be beyond doubt, put the formula in a spreadsheet and see what you get

*gives up*

Idiot, you're still wrong. It's 40. And if you still doubt me, do the sum on a calculator. The answer is 40. Please do it on a calculator. The result will always be 40. It will never be 31.

If you wish to dispute basic maths, go ahead!

Please tell me why my calculator gives 40 as the result. Go on then, if I'm wrong, why does my calculator give 40 which is the same figure I came up with.