Who on earth...?

[girlyswot]

I cannot imagine the person who buys these:



People who aren't maths geeks aren't going to want them. And people like me would actually be moved to smash them to pieces. I suppose you might buy one for a maths geek you don't really like, just to watch them squirm.

Comments

[brownfach.livejournal.com]

Husband is away, so can you tell me exactly why it's wrong? On second thoughts, I could soften him up with this question to display his superiority, before I confess to having scraped the car today to the tune of £400 whilst having an I'm-so-tired-my-spatial-awareness-has-disappeared moment.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, I'm sorry about the car. Parking when tired is always a bad idea.

[amamama.livejournal.com]

The answer is x2+x-2, not +2x. Which is why I thought it might be fun for younger kids as they could feel great spotting what's wrong. I must be way too tired, because I don't find anything funny about this mug at all. Even if it's deliberate.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

You have to multiply both terms in each bracket with both terms in the other bracket.

So it's:

x by x = x^2
x by -1 = -x
2 by x = 2x
2 by -1 = -2

The second and third terms can be combined to give: x^2 + x -2