Chapter 618 Philosophy behind the math problem!
On the whiteboard.
Zhang Ye’s wondrous math problem from his previous world had surfaced in this world!!
The problems were: Follow the rhythm and write out the multiplication formula (a set of onomatopoeic words):
1: Ding Ding Ding, Ding Ding Ding;
2: Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah;
3: Wu Wu Wu, Wu Wu Wu;
4: Miao Miao, Miao Miao, Miao Miao.
There were a total of four questions with few words. Zhang Ye finished writing them with just a few strokes before putting down the marker. He turned around and said, “I have finished setting the questions, everyone can give them a try. The students may try it as well, so just find a blank piece paper to write down your answers. Yes, let me emphasize it once more, this is a set of elementary math questions meant for primary school students. OK, you may begin now.”
If the people from Zhang Ye’s previous world saw these math problems, they would not be unfamiliar with them or too surprised. However, in this world, these teachers had never seen such kind of questions before, so they were all f**king stunned by it!!
Pfft!
F**k!
What kind of math questions were these!
Li Jiaxing had already intended to pick up a marker to start writing. If he could even handle university-level higher math questions, what would be so difficult about these elementary math questions. After all, he held a master’s degree! But within a second of seeing the questions, Li Jiaxing felt like he was suddenly overwhelmed by a hundred thousand lines of ‘f**k you’!
This…
What the f**k was this!
A second grade fine arts teacher asked in confusion, “Are these really elementary math questions? That’s impossible! They are such difficult questions that I don’t even understand them!”
A third grade music teacher said, “Yes, I don’t even know what the meaning of these questions are.”
Zhao Mei was also trying to solve the questions but was left very confused, “Onomatopoeic words? What do you mean by onomatopoeic words?”
The vice-principal also muttered softly to himself, “Follow the rhythm to write out the multiplication formula? Rhythm? What kind of rhythm? Why are the questions even related to music now? Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do? How would the children even understand it!”
One of the language teachers mumbled to himself, “Ding Ding Ding? Is this a multiplication formula?”
An English teacher who had already given up said, “It’s impossible to solve this! What and what?!”
Li Jiaxing was also experiencing a headache that was hurting his brain at this moment. What did these sounds have anything to do with multiplication formulas? And also, how would these multiplication formulas be written?
However, Chenchen had already lowered her head and started to write.
Her other classmates were also writing down their own answers.
One minute passed.
Three minutes passed.
Five minutes passed.
Suddenly, Zhang Ye told everyone to stop. “OK, that’s enough. The time given is already too long. Those who know the answers would have already written them. Teacher Li?”
Li Jiaxing handed over his answers with a dark expression. He had written down the answers on the blank area on the back side of his teaching materials. The answers were written as—Question one: “1×3, 1×3.”; Question two: Empty, he did not write any answer for it; Question three: “1×3, 1×3.”; Question four: “1×2, 1×2, 1×2.”
Zhao Mei also wrote: Ding ×3, Ding ×3; Ah ×1, Ah ×1; and so on for the other questions.
The other teachers’ answers were also all sorts of strange. Compared to Zhao Mei’s multiplication formula which even contained the Chinese characters, the answers given by the others were much odder and weirder.
Most of the teachers did not answer at all because they could not even understand the questions.
Zhao Mei asked curiously, “What are the correct answers?”
Zhang Ye smiled and said, “Teacher Zhao, can you help me collect the answers from the students?”
“Sure.” Zhao Mei went to collect the answers from all of them.
After they were fully collected, Zhang Ye wrote down the right answers on the whiteboard.
The answer to the first question: 3×2
The answer to the second question: 1×4
The answer to the third question: 3×2
The answer to the fourth question: 2×3
Every teacher had answered them wrong!
When Li Jiaxing saw the answers, he was suddenly enlightened!
He finally understood what was going on once the answers were given!
“So that’s how it is!” A fine arts teacher said in a speechless manner, “This was really too difficult to guess, just reading and understanding it was already too difficult!”
One of the teachers couldn’t resist and said, “These are elementary math questions? Which primary student can solve these kind of questions? If they can do it, I’ll eat all the answer sheets!”
Li Jiaxing nodded and said, “Even if they can get it right, it’s probably only by chance.”
Zhang Ye asked with great interest, “Oh, is that so?”
“How is it not so?” Li Jiaxing pointed to the whiteboard and said, “Even the adults had trouble understanding those questions, so don’t even mention the children!”
Zhao Mei also nodded.
“That’s right,” all the teachers said.
Zhang Ye happily said, “Alright, since everyone says that, let’s check the answers by the children. Teacher Zhao, could I trouble you to read out their answers?”
Zhao Mei had not looked at their answers yet, so she said, “Alright, but there are no names on the answer sheets.”
“It’s alright, no need for any names,” Zhang Ye said.
Zhao Mei acknowledged and took the stack of answer sheets. From the first one, she read out, “3×2; 1×4; 3×2; 2×3….3×2; 1×4; 3×2; 2×3….3×2; 1×4; 3×2; 2×3….” Reading up till here, Zhao Mei and the rest of the teachers were all stunned. Zhao Mei’s hands shivered, she seemed to have witnessed something miraculous. She stared with her eyes wide open and continued reading, reading faster as she went on, “—3×2; 1×4; 3×2; 2×3….3×2; 1×4; 3×2; 2×3…empty, a student did not answer….3×2; 1×4; 3×2; 2×3….3×2; 1×4; 3×2; 2×3….3×2; 1×4; 3×2; 2×3….3×2; 1×4; 3×2; 2×3!”
She finished reading out all of the students’ answers!
Only one student handed in an unanswered sheet and another one got it wrong but everyone else was correct. In the entire class one of the second grade, more than 90% of them had correctly answered those questions!
Zhao Mei raised her head up and asked blankly, “How could this happen?”
The vice-principal was shocked and said, “This…this is not possible!”
The fine arts teacher was stunned and asked, “Almost all of them got it right?”
Zhang Ye shrugged, then pointed at the children and said, “Everyone here saw them just now, the children did not engage in any cheating. I believe everyone saw it more clearly than me, is that right? After these questions were given, they did not copy from each other and I also gave the answers only after their answer sheets had been collected. That would have eliminated all possibility of them cheating, and so the results are for all here to judge. Teacher Li, is this what you call a lucky shot even if almost all of them had answered correctly? If one or few of them got the questions correct by chance, then how would you explain almost all of them getting it correct together at the same time?”
Li Jiaxing was at a loss for an explanation. He asked, “How—how did you do that?”
Zhang Ye waved it off and said, “It’s not how I did it. You should be asking the children how they did it instead. I have mentioned and confirmed that these are only primary school elementary math questions, so perhaps the children might have a different thinking from you all. Children, do you think these questions are difficult?” He looked at them and asked.
A girl said, “It’s not difficult!”
A little boy smiled and said, “It’s very simple.”
Another boy also smiled and said, “It’s too simple.”
This was probably the first time they felt they were actually smarter than the school’s teachers. They had gotten the math questions correct when even the teachers could not answer them. Everyone was feeling very proud and excited, scrambling to speak up and express their thoughts about how this problem was really simple for them.
Chenchen’s answer was even more exasperating.
She smirked and said, “Such childish questions.”
Childish…
The elementary math questions that were labeled as childish by a child was too difficult for a group of teachers and school leaders to handle, even baffling the teacher with a master’s degree, Li Jiaxing!
This was a scolding!
This was outright scolding!
Many of the teachers did not look too good anymore.
Li Jiaxing hurriedly asked, “Just what is going on here?”
Everyone did not know or understand why either!
Zhang Ye explained, “You might think that this is magic. Why did the adults find the questions to be so difficult while the children solved it without any pressure at all? Obviously this was not magic. It’s just the difference of the train of thought in approaching the solving of the questions. Teacher Li, you have a master’s and have taught in a high school previously, but also precisely because of that, it ended up becoming a problem when you are teaching the primary school students. They are not adults and are even the youngest among the pre-teens, so the way they view the world is also different from what adults see. Naturally, you shouldn’t use an adult’s train of thought to measure them by either.”
After letting Zhang Ye show off a little of his skills, the teachers were silent and only waited for him to continue explaining.
Zhang Ye walked to the whiteboard and asked, “Is this question difficult? It is not difficult at all. If I change the way the question is expressed in, maybe all of you will be enlightened.” Then, he wrote and drew something at the side of the ‘Ding Ding Ding, Ding Ding Ding’ question. Zhang Ye changed it into a set of three watermelons on one side, and another set of three watermelons on the other side, but kept the requirement of expressing the question in a multiplication formula.
When everyone saw it, they were jolted awake!
“Aiyah!
“If it was written earlier in that way, I’d have understood it!”
“Such questions already exist in the elementary math workbooks!”
“Right, it’s exactly the same too!”
“Isn’t it just simply a 3×2 multiplication formula!”
Li Jiaxing was left speechless as he looked at Zhang Ye with a complex expression.
Zhang Ye smiled and said, “It looks really clear now, right? This was actually the same question, but was only changed from a pictorial representation into words. Since it was only like that, then why did everyone not understand it? Why? Let me tell all of you why. This is because the thought process of an adult is too complicated. They always overthink things, such as the meaning of the words, onomatopoeic words, or the permutation and combination of words. Thus, even when the questions were essentially the same, what was affected was actually your own judgments. However, it is different for children, as in their eyes, the world is really not that complicated at all. Together with the way we have been learning and our mindsets of how questions should be, this has led to such an outcome that seemingly feels like magic here.”
The form teacher, Zhao Mei, looked at Zhang Ye in admiration. Unexpectedly, just some simple elementary math questions were conveniently modified by Zhang Ye to such a level that it not only shocked the teachers, but also gave them a lively lesson to learn from!
The math problems even had a hidden philosophy behind them!
What a legendary person of the entertainment circle! He thoroughly deserved his reputation!!