TreShawnDeandre
New member
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2019
- Messages
- 1
I recently did a test on which I got a certain question marked wrong, which I feel was poorly written. When I read this question I interpreted it differently than intended and came to a different answer, my argument is that this way of interpreting is also right, and my math was correct, so I should be given the marks back, as it isn't my fault the question is unclear. the question is as follows (exact wording).
"A Robotic frog is programmed to make a sequence of jumps, each jump 1/5 the length of the preceding one. a frog is programmed to jump to a position 38 m away in 10 jumps. Determine the horizontal distance of the first 3 jumps."
When I read this question I thought of it as a convergent sequence, the frog would jump towards 0 and after 10 jumps, it would be 38 m away.
I found that when 38=x(1/5)10-1 (x being where the frog was at t=1). that x is equal to 74218750. plugging this back into the formula I found the frog went from 74218750 m to 1483750 m, to 2968750 m, to 593750 m, and after 10 jumps would be at 38 m. using the distances, I found the length of each jump, 59375000 m, then 11875000 m, then 2375000, all of these being 1/5 the distance of the previous jump. I believe all of my math is correct, but the problem is my teacher doesn't understand how the question could be interpreted differently. I feel as though the question did not explain the frog was moving away from the start point, it only said 38 meters away, but not from what. If someone was to ask me this question directly in person, I would think they meant 38 meters away from them/us, so I took it to mean the frog is coming closer and closer, until it is 38 m away, as was stated in the question. If the question said 38 m from where it started or something along those lines it would make sense to be interpreted only 1 way, but it's not. So I believe my answer fills all the criteria? each jump is 1/5 the distance of the last, and after 10 jumps, it is 38 m away? There is one other teacher I can go to but I want to see if others agree with me first, or if there is some blaring issue with my answer, thank you, and my apologies if this is more of an English question than a math question.
"A Robotic frog is programmed to make a sequence of jumps, each jump 1/5 the length of the preceding one. a frog is programmed to jump to a position 38 m away in 10 jumps. Determine the horizontal distance of the first 3 jumps."
When I read this question I thought of it as a convergent sequence, the frog would jump towards 0 and after 10 jumps, it would be 38 m away.
I found that when 38=x(1/5)10-1 (x being where the frog was at t=1). that x is equal to 74218750. plugging this back into the formula I found the frog went from 74218750 m to 1483750 m, to 2968750 m, to 593750 m, and after 10 jumps would be at 38 m. using the distances, I found the length of each jump, 59375000 m, then 11875000 m, then 2375000, all of these being 1/5 the distance of the previous jump. I believe all of my math is correct, but the problem is my teacher doesn't understand how the question could be interpreted differently. I feel as though the question did not explain the frog was moving away from the start point, it only said 38 meters away, but not from what. If someone was to ask me this question directly in person, I would think they meant 38 meters away from them/us, so I took it to mean the frog is coming closer and closer, until it is 38 m away, as was stated in the question. If the question said 38 m from where it started or something along those lines it would make sense to be interpreted only 1 way, but it's not. So I believe my answer fills all the criteria? each jump is 1/5 the distance of the last, and after 10 jumps, it is 38 m away? There is one other teacher I can go to but I want to see if others agree with me first, or if there is some blaring issue with my answer, thank you, and my apologies if this is more of an English question than a math question.
