Brain Teasers
Smart?
Fun: (2.23)
Difficulty: (2.13)
Puzzle ID: #43415
Submitted By: KarateGirl098 Corrected By: catfood99
Submitted By: KarateGirl098 Corrected By: catfood99
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
One day, a second grade math teacher was helping her students write large numbers. She paid a lot of a attention to her new student, James. It was James' first day at his new school, and, being as shy as he was, he had barely spoken the whole day. The teacher asked him to write 'one thousand'. The boy wrote 1,000. The teacher asked him to write one million. The boy wrote 1,000,000. Finally, the teacher asked him to write one billion. The boy wrote 1,000,000,000,000. His answer was correct. Why?
Hint
Think about where he used to live.Answer
James is from England. James' family prefers to use traditional British Long Scale when talking about high numbers. If you use traditional British Long Scale, one billion (1,000,000,000) means, what most people would say as, one trillion (1,000,000,000,000).Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
What Next?
View a Similar Brain Teaser...
If you become a registered user you can vote on this brain teaser, keep track of which ones you have seen, and even make your own.
Solve a Puzzle
Comments
What?
That is not correct...
If you read the answer, it explains why it is correct. Good teaser, tricky
easy.
teaser is correct.
teaser is correct.
So, out of curiosity, how would one, using British long scale, name 1,000,000,000? Might have helped if there was a reference to being from someplace else. Perhaps that wouldn't have been quite so tricky.
Thanks for the teaser.
Thanks for the teaser.
I think it's one milliard, but 100% sure.
Oops - sorry, I meant "I think it's one milliard, but I'm not 100% sure."
Wow, I had no idea. Nice teaser!
Nice...
Personally, I think that this is a trick question since it is obvious- but that is only because I know the answer.
1,000,000,000 would be described as 1 thousand million.
one thousand 1000s = 1million
one million 1000,000s = 1 billion.
Whichever system you grow up with seems logical and you wonder why the heck do the others do it different...
Personally, I think that this is a trick question since it is obvious- but that is only because I know the answer.
1,000,000,000 would be described as 1 thousand million.
one thousand 1000s = 1million
one million 1000,000s = 1 billion.
Whichever system you grow up with seems logical and you wonder why the heck do the others do it different...
Ooops...forgot to say that he probably wouldn't have added the commas in his answer. My perception of those is that they are a North American convention.
It never said he was from England,it just said he was shy.But.....lol anyway
nice
"It never said he was from England,it just said he was shy.But.....lol anyway"
Sorry - I just didn't want to make it too easy for the people who knew it.
Sorry - I just didn't want to make it too easy for the people who knew it.
I'm not sure I still understand it, but that's ok since others do. Needless to say i didn't get it, but thank you for posting anyways.
4 words:Look at my flag.
teh hint = wrong
nowhere in teaser is "england" except answer
nowhere in teaser is "england" except answer
Well, you know, the Brits have a lot of conventions that are funny to us and a lot of saying too, even though we speak the same language (sort of!).
Interesting! Never would have gotten it.
To the people who think it's impossible to get this teaser using just what you're told in the teaser... you're right. That's why it's in the Situation category. Read the description before criticizing.
To the people who think it's impossible to get this teaser using just what you're told in the teaser... you're right. That's why it's in the Situation category. Read the description before criticizing.
Firstly its hardly a situation teaser. Secondly. although not British, we down under convicts tend to adhere to the British system up to a point but as a Mathematics teacher in Oz we generally have tended to go with the American definition of billion because of the all pervasive cultural pollution of our television/internet/movies etc. We are constantly bombarded by Americanisms to the point where its just easier to go along with their redefinitions. (One I will not go along with is their inability to spell Aluminium Look at the periodic table - it's UnuntrIUM, ThallIUM, IndIUM, GallIUM, and guess what NOT aluminUM!!!
Great teaser. Although I think it is in the wrong category, it is in my faveoritess!!!
I got that as I'm Scottish (UK), although I did used to think 1 billion was 1,000,000,000... Good teaser anyway .
@jimbo- u need to cool down. Americanism isn't all that bad.
@teasermaker- nice but nobody outside of britain couldve got this. Anyways, i guess if I'd grown up with that system, this would have been fun =D.
@teasermaker- nice but nobody outside of britain couldve got this. Anyways, i guess if I'd grown up with that system, this would have been fun =D.
Actually, Jimbo, the guy who discovered aluminum originally named it "alumium", but he later changed his mind and renamed it aluminum. Some people thought that the name aluminium sounded better. It's not our inability to spell.
To post a comment, please create an account and sign in.
Follow Braingle!