All I can say is: this question took me quite a while to understand. But once I understood the assignment, I was able to figure it out fairly quickly. I first thought the question is saying every second person took a dish of rice, every third person a dish of broth, and every fourth person a dish of meat. This made no sense. Then, I understood the people SHARING the dishes, and couldn’t understand why 65 dishes mattered. Then, I figured out what the question was asking for.
Without algebra, I just used the simple method of guessing and checking. I knew that the guests had to be a multiple of 12, since that’s the lowest common multiple of 2, 3, and 4. Then, I constructed a table assuming that there are 12 guests, and found how many dishes they would need each. I kept going up by multiples of 12 until I noticed that the number of dishes went up by multiples of 13. So since 65/13 = 5, then it means that there are 12 x 5 = 60 guests (work attached below). I solved the question the algebraic way to double check!
I think it’s very important to illustrate the math questions from different cultures. This shows how universal math is throughout history, and decolonizes it in a way. It’s very frustrating to see all every science and math concept be named after an old dead white dude, say Pythagoras or Fermat, even though they probably aren’t the first people to discover said discovery. And in the case of naming theorems after those dead white dudes, we fail to acknowledge those who were able to figure it out way before us, and it’s something that we should all appreciate.
And I think storytelling is also a vital part of problems. I think it’s always fun to have an imagery associated with each question, so we get cases of Bob buying a truck of 372 watermelons. It makes the question more relatable, and answers those students who wonder why we need to learn things like trigonometry in the first place. So at the end of the day, even if storytelling doesn’t value to the question itself, it motivates the students to answer the problem to complete the story, which is an additional reward!
Great work and reflection, Leon! Figuring out what the question is asking is a crucial step, isn't it? You're not the only one who found the wording of the problem confusing. I think the awkward wording of the problem might come from translating from ancient Chinese text. I love your illustration, and using a table is a great way to solve problems and represent solutions.
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