Question 1096575: Richard is 5 times older than his son. 5 years ago, he is 15 times the age of his son, what is Richard's age today?
Found 2 solutions by Alan3354, greenestamps:
Answer by Alan3354(69443)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Is he 5 times older, or 5 times as old?
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RE: The comment by greenestamps:
Many tutors don't seem to get the difference, either.
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Then, there's "10 times smaller." 1 time smaller is zero, so that makes no sense.
And "8 times closer." Same thing, nonsensical.
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I find airplane problems irritating when the speeds are in mi/hr or km/hr. We use knots. And "speed in still air" is airspeed.
But that's tolerable, just a matter of ignorance, and not incorrect.
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Then there's directions:
35 degs W of S?????
If you can't use a compass or DG, don't write math problems about it.
Answer by greenestamps(13200)  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Just a note of thanks to tutor alan3354 for recognizing that "5 times older than" does NOT NOT NOT mean the same as "5 times as old as".
It irritates me no end when I see questions on competitive high school contests where the author of the problem has INCORRECTLY interpreted the two phrases to mean the same thing.
The students who use the grammatically correct interpretation of the phrase get the "wrong" answer and get penalized; the students who sloppily use the incorrect interpretation get rewarded.
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