PsiChick: If you're using math in a purely theoretical way, you're doing it wrong.

Theoretical mathematics is the reason this thread isn't in Japanese.

PsiChick: We don't know the context.

The context is Alabama. That tells me everything I feel I need to know.

PsiChick: With no qualifiers, the sentence is asking for an exact answer. So exactly how many students have both?

Oh, for fark's sake.

Between six and fifteen students have both. This is the most exact answer possible.

No warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose are included with that answer. But I assure you, in the way your sixth grade teacher should have done, that the answer to the question is precisely as I have stated it.

The answer of course is... 42

PsiChick: snowjack: umad: snowjack: (checks profile) Ah, a liberal arts major, I'm guessing. That would explain everything.

And a genuine psychic.

At first I felt bad for picking on her, but of course she knew how this thread was gonna end anyway. She wouldn't have chosen to be here if she wasn't tough enough to take the heat. I hope the disruptive energy from all the numbers in this thread didn't screw up her powers.

Uh, yeah, I can still read what you two say, dickheads.

But you don't even need to. That's what's awesome, you can just pull the mockery directly from our minds.

umad: PsiChick: Yeah, welcome to my ignore list.

:,(

I think she mad. I guess it must be frustrating, trying to use literary analysis on sixth-grade mathematical story problems.

Bhruic: If you're going to be that picky, you're wrong. The question is "How many have both dogs and cats". The subject of the sentence is missing. While many people (including you) have automatically assumed it's referring to students, that's not explicitly stated. For all we know, they could be asking how many people on the entire planet have both dogs and cats. So the "ultra picky" version doesn't even have a range of answers, let alone a precise one.

One of the things I had to learn in school was to NOT be 'ultra picky' and attempt to read the question in 'plain english'. That means if they say '6 students own dogs', that means that PRECISELY 6 students own dogs. Otherwise they'd say 'at least 6 students own dogs'.

You know what most impresses me about psychics? It's their unbelievable integrity. I mean, the average person, if granted psychic abilities, would be tempted to go to a casino and make a couple million at the poker tables. But you don't see that. With few exceptions, most people who say they have psychic powers live at or below the poverty line. In trailer parks, there's probably one in every other trailer. The temptation to cash in must be huge.

Maybe there's something about their sensitivities which tells them that cashing in would upset the balance of the universe, or something, so they all just keep on humbly doing their part, slinging burgers and fries, or selling smokes and slushies at the qwik-e-mart, staying under the radar, and casually sharing their wisdom when they sense someone with an open heart passing by. It's truly admirable.