Tester Quiz

A short post today because I am pushing all the work over to you! <g/> How many answers to "38.30 - 1 1/2 = ???" can you think of? Here are a few to get you started:

• 36.80 (assuming both are decimal numbers)
• 36.30 (assuming minutes.seconds)
• An error message that "38.30" is an invalid number in the current locale (assuming the current locale treats the period as a thousands separators rather than a decimal point)

Post your answers in the comments!

Comments

• Anonymous
  May 30, 2007
  So, this one is a little far out but say we  collapses all spaces in a math equation.. the answer then would be 32.8 (39.30-5.5) or, say order of operations is addition/substraction before mult/div and the spaces are dropped... we get 13.65 via (38.30-11)/2

• Anonymous
  May 30, 2007
  *A parser error, some locales don't use the period mark at all(for instance, scandinavian languages) *36 - assuming int as datatype, C# as language *37 - assuming int as datatype, vb.net as language(vb.net uses bankers rounding, totally messed up) Hmmm... maybe not enough coffee yet.  Can't think of any more...

• Anonymous
  May 30, 2007
  33.30 (assuming whitespace is ignored and '1 1/2' evaluates to an integer) 32.80 (assuming whitespace is ignored and '1 1/2' evaluates to a decimal) 37.30 (assuming '1/2' evaluates to an integer)

• Anonymous
  May 30, 2007
  38.30-1 1/2 Hi Michael, I was think on post at night but.. I presume that Michael Bolton or James Bach where about to post here with: "What is the context?" and thats right, there are multiple answers and one valid for the context .. ;) one of the multiples ones is to assume that the dot is in the context a multiplication operator so: 38.30 - 1 1/2 = 1140 - 1 1/2 = 1138 1/2 (aka. 38x30 - 1.5 = 1140 - 1.5 = 1138.5) Another thing is to presume that the calculator or the input innores the space character so it translate as: 38.30 - 11/2 and then the answer is 32.8 and so on...

• Anonymous
  May 30, 2007
  Wouldn't 38:30 be 38 minutes 30 seconds, which is 38.5 minutes?  If you subsection 1 1/2 minutes, the result would be 37 minutes, right?

• Anonymous
  May 30, 2007
  larmccoy: You're right, my math was completely wrong on that one!

• Anonymous
  May 30, 2007

• parser error: 1 1/2 is not valid in many programming languages

• degree-minute-second format 38.3 - 1 1/2 = 37 degrees

• Anonymous
  May 31, 2007
  Apart from all of the above - my take: 38.30 - 1 1/2 = 38.30 - 1 1/2 Completely depends what and where I am working on! I work on a software called SAS, where they have a feature called macro variables. If you assign a macro variable to 38.30 - 1 1/2, it treats everything as text and the final result is going to be exactly what you pass to it.

• Anonymous
  May 31, 2007
  No one has said what base we're working in. Sure you can assume base10 and the equation itself implies at least 8 digits - but infinite possibilities still remain.

• Anonymous
  May 31, 2007
  Try to input 38.30 - 1 1/2 into IE address bar.

• Anonymous
  May 31, 2007
  MS Word Zoom percentage gives “This is not a valid measurement” Excel gave 36.8 while it converted 11/2 as 1.5 Google gave it 36.8 while it interpreted 38.30 - (1 1/2) = 36.8 MSN gave 32.8 considering 11/2 as 5.5 Yahoo search engine treats it as a string input and gives the results like “Filson Bridle Belt 1 1/2" 30-38"” Basic Calculator at www.math.com does not recognize it as a valid arithmetic expression Space between 1 and 1/2 makes a difference in Excel again. One space would give 36.8 while more than one space would give a formula error proposes a correction as 11/2 38.30-1 ½ - this fraction character when copied to excel gives formula error

• Anonymous
  June 01, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 02, 2007
  my take in different contexts:

• 37.00(assuming hours.minutes)

• 36.8(assuming only the last one digit after decimal is considered)

• 36.8(assuming white space after decimal is considered as zero)

• 736/20 or 184/5 (answer in terms of fraction)

• 36 4/5 or 18 4/10 or 9 4/20 or 3 4/60 or 1 4/180(answer interms of mixed fraction)

• Anonymous
  June 03, 2007
  Hi Likewise I can  think of few more answers 3680*(10^-2) or 368.0*(10^-1) or 3.680*(10) or 0.3680*(10^2) and so on..depending on the context.

• Anonymous
  June 03, 2007
  Testy et al:  Yes this is a trick question. And it isn't. In a "'test this" situation, I would indeed expect a bunch of questions about context, as you and Alejandro suggest. In a brainstorming situation, however, I generally leave the discussion wide open, as too many constraints can eliminate ideas before they ever thought. (And yes, even then there is some context.) Thanks for calling me out! I will be more precise next time.

• Anonymous
  June 03, 2007
  My Answers:

• 18.65 ( assuming 38.30 -1 = 37.30 and then 37.30 * .5 = 18.65)

• 37.00(assuming hours and minutes)

• 36.80 (assuming both are decimal numbers)

• 33.30 ( assuming  1 1/2 is treated as 11/2 which is truncated to 5)

• 37 29.5 (assuming Kms and mts...First would turn out to be 38 Km 30 mts and second one will be 1 Km and .50 mts)

• 32.80 (assuming space is ignored and '1 1/2' evaluates to a decimal)

• Anonymous
  June 05, 2007
  36.8 - If both are decimal Feb 5, 1990 7:12pm - if both are days     (38.30 - 31 = 7.30; i.e. 7Feb .30 day      7.30 - 1.5 = 5.8; i.e. 5 Feb .8 day      i.e. 5 feb .824 = 5 feb 19.2 hrs      i.e. 5 feb 19hrs .260 mins      i.e. 5 feb 19 hrs 12 mins) 36 4/5 - if its a fraction calculation 3.68E+01 - if its a scientific calculation

• Anonymous
  June 06, 2007
  If the calculator is Reverse Polish Notation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_Polish_notation) Then the entries are 38

• (at this point the result is -38) 1 1 / 2 When you get to '1 1' an error is given that its not a number. If that error is ignored by the calculator or a script in the case of automating the operations ; the calculation will become 38

/ 2 Which assuming all stack values are zero to start with becomes 0 38

/ (at this point the result is 0 => (0 / (0 -38)) 2 Which gives the answer of 2 because the 2 entered at the end.