Friday, September 08, 2006

Shim's algebra question

It was during a particularly boring lecture that Shim slid a small piece of paper to Jaime and me, who sat right behind him. An algebra question was written on that piece of paper:

2xy = 10 + z
2x + y = 20
x = z + 10

What is y?

I just smiled. It was ages ago since I had done any math question of that nature. All those drillings I did to prepare for SPM has been forgotten. Yet, I was tempted to try my luck. Maybe the question's not so hard. There's no harm in trying is there?

Jaime, on the other hand, was more than gamed. She was really eager to attempt the question.

But before I started to pull a clean sheet of paper out, I asked Shim: "Betul ke soalan ni ada jawapan?"

He replied: "Mestila ade. Aku yang buat sendiri."

Hurm ... that's really promising (!). But I have faith in my friend. heh

Jaime and I tried and tried but we couldn't solve it. After sometime, Shim turned back to face us and said: "Eh, tak siap lagi ke?"

I gave up first. Jaime persisted for a while longer.

After she too had surrendered, Shim started working to give us the answer. I thought I would only take a while. But it took a lot longer than expected.

Jaime and I peeked over Shim's shoulder to see what he was doing. He seemed to be struggling with the question himself. We had to control our urge to laugh. From a small bit of paper that he was using, he had to pull out a larger piece to accommodate the more complex equations he's deriving.

Finally, he turned back once again, and slid us another note. It said:

"Soalan salah. muahaha"

It was a funny incident and it got me thinking about how bad I am in math. I used to be real good at it. But not anymore. My mental arithmetic is particularly embarassing. I guess that's one of the occupational hazards of being a TESL student. You deal with language, not numbers.

That's a pretty solid defence for my poor math ability don't you think?

15 comments:

Sunny MST said...

why did u have to come up with such entry? so tempting! :p

z can be -0.25 or -10.
if z = -0.25, x = 9.75, y = 0.5

if z = -10, x = 0, y = 20

=P *nerd alert*

qu33n^ang3l said...

i forgot i ever learned any maths~ ow wait a minute... what's maths? ngeh ngeh ngeh~ HATE IT!!!

Nisa Kamaruddin said...

the only math equation that i solve is Hugh Jackman + SHah Rukh Khan = HOTNESSSSS!!!!!

Rosyada said...

i just knew that u would try to solve it sunny! even while i was writing the entry :P

Sunny MST said...

awww....u were thinking of me? =P

sila la letak soalan math lg...yg actually contains...not the hugh jackman crap =P

nisa...1+2=x ape itu x? x can contain any number...but no letters such as h.u.g.h.j.a.c.k.m.a.n =P

me said...

omg nisa that is so funny!

i agree with u syada. i guess if i was the one whom shim slipped the paper to, i'll straight away pass it to u or jaime. no attempt at all! lagi teruk kan?

i guess that's y we're in this line coz our brains deal with language not numbers! hence the maths equation which nisa came up with hehe!

and sunny, i think syada wasn't thinking of you THAT way if u know what i mean hahahahahahahaha

Nisa Kamaruddin said...

heyy!!!!! hugh jackman is not crap k?

bluerrghhhh to numbers!!!~~~

Sunny MST said...

what's 4 letters and describes hugh jackman? c-r-a-p =P

lor...ye ke tasha?adakah benar kata2 tasha itu syada?? =(

...

Uncle Shawn said...

dah agak dah..sunny musti nak berlagak..isk3x..tapi i agree wif nisa! e.g. jessica alba + jessica simpsons = hawtness!! huhu

me said...

err shim, no! jessica alba + sophia bush = yes hawtness! but jessica simpson? eeeeuurrggghhh! NOT! hahaha

Nisa Kamaruddin said...

sunny ! u jahat laaaaa~~~~~~

ingat best la pandai math ni?

huhuu~~

tasha, i agree with shim. jessica simpson hot la.. tapi i bukan lesbian, so i suke ex-husband die. heheheehehhe~

Sunny MST said...

elee shim...wekkkk...

haha...hot or not?
jessica alba - definite tick...
jessica simpson - left empty (nnti negative marking if salah pilih hot or not)...

come on...hot or not, jessica simpson gedik gila wehhh...

rachel bilson....mmm...summer....(cute is better than hot =P)

Nisa Kamaruddin said...

die gedik~ tapi hot kan? kan? kan?

me said...

how about paris hilton? any takers? haha tu mmg gedik sume ade but still org ckp die hot bwahahaahaha

Syaza A said...

haha.nerdy one.