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 Elementary Math Fractions, Percentages, Word Problems, Equations, Inequations, Factorization, Expansion

 November 16th, 2011, 12:59 PM #1 Newbie   Joined: Nov 2011 Posts: 5 Thanks: 0 I had this come up on a job application? I've always been pretty good with math in school, but school was a very long time ago and I got stumped on this question: if 3/4 of 3/8 equals 2, what is 1/4 of 3/8. I can't believe that I lost this much math ability but it has been almost 30 years ago since I was in college. Any help would be appreciated.
 November 16th, 2011, 01:12 PM #2 Senior Member     Joined: Jul 2010 From: St. Augustine, FL., U.S.A.'s oldest city Posts: 12,155 Thanks: 466 Math Focus: Calculus/ODEs Re: I had this come up on a job application? I think you mean: If 3/4 of 8/3 equals 2 then what is 1/4 of 8/3? We could write: $\frac{1}{4}\cdot\frac{8}{3}=\frac{1}{3}$$\frac{3}{ 4}\cdot\frac{8}{3}$$=\frac{1}{3}\cdot2=\frac{2}{3}$ You see, I think what they were after is that if 3/4 times some quantity is known, then 1/4 times that same quantity will be 1/3 of the original product, since 1/4 is 1/3 of 3/4.
 November 16th, 2011, 04:31 PM #3 Newbie   Joined: Nov 2011 Posts: 5 Thanks: 0 Re: I had this come up on a job application? my original post is correct.
 November 16th, 2011, 04:37 PM #4 Senior Member     Joined: Jul 2010 From: St. Augustine, FL., U.S.A.'s oldest city Posts: 12,155 Thanks: 466 Math Focus: Calculus/ODEs Re: I had this come up on a job application? Ummm...no it is not. Not trying to be obstinate. 3/4 of 3/8 is: $\frac{3}{4}\cdot\frac{3}{8}=\frac{9}{32}$ However: $\frac{3}{4}\cdot\frac{8}{3}=\frac{3\cdot8}{4\cdot3 }=\frac{8}{4}=\frac{2\cdot4}{4}=2$
November 17th, 2011, 10:31 AM   #5
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Re: I had this come up on a job application?

Quote:
 Originally Posted by MarkFL Ummm...no it is not. Not trying to be obstinate.
Did you see the job application that I was looking at? No!

Bye.

 November 17th, 2011, 10:43 AM #6 Senior Member     Joined: Jul 2010 From: St. Augustine, FL., U.S.A.'s oldest city Posts: 12,155 Thanks: 466 Math Focus: Calculus/ODEs Re: I had this come up on a job application? My sincerest apologies for my incorrect assumption. I simply felt it more likely that you recalled the problem incorrectly, simply inverting a fraction, rather than an application have such a basic and glaring error.
 November 17th, 2011, 11:06 AM #7 Global Moderator     Joined: Nov 2009 From: Northwest Arkansas Posts: 2,766 Thanks: 4 Re: I had this come up on a job application? Any chance that it said: "If 3/4 of 3/8 OF X is 2..., what is 1/4 of 3/8 of X?" ??? (where X is some unknown) You could then solve for X and compute 1/4 of 3/8 of it. But 1/4 of 3/8 of anything is 1/3 of (3/4 of 3/8 of that thing, which equals 2). So we would get 1/3 of 2 = 2/3. Methinks.
 November 18th, 2011, 06:21 PM #8 Newbie   Joined: Nov 2011 Posts: 5 Thanks: 0 Re: I had this come up on a job application? nope, no X.
 November 18th, 2011, 06:24 PM #9 Newbie   Joined: Nov 2011 Posts: 5 Thanks: 0 Re: I had this come up on a job application? Sorry that my post came off like I am a jerk. Where you at in FL Mark. My application that has this problem on it is in Fort Myers.
 November 18th, 2011, 06:29 PM #10 Senior Member     Joined: Jul 2010 From: St. Augustine, FL., U.S.A.'s oldest city Posts: 12,155 Thanks: 466 Math Focus: Calculus/ODEs Re: I had this come up on a job application? No worries...my "ummm no" didn't make me look very nice either! St. Augustine is about 38 miles south of Jacksonville and 54 miles north of Daytona. So I am in NE FL. Fort Myers is in SW FL.

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