Guide 5 (Word Problems) Chap 4 (Ratios) Problem Set Quest 9

[Jwbaldi]

I contend that the answer to the problem should be B because the minimum number of gemstones is 6 1/3. The correct answer is indeed B, but the minimum number of gemstones is given as 19 in the solution.

I realize i I may be splitting hairs...but the problem doesn't indicate that gemstones must be whole (and in the real world they often aren't, unlike, say, people). If this probably had different values in the question or answer choices, I could've gotten it wrong by assuming fractional amounts are allowed.

Is this question written fairly?

Thanks for your time.

[tommywallach]

Hey Jw,

Well, this gets interesting here, and not in a way that's remotely relevant (but I love irrelevant stuff).

There are two possible things a gemstone could be.

1) A cut gemstone (like you have in a finished piece of jewelry)
2) An uncut gemstone

Now, here's the crazy part. If you were to have a fractional cut gemstone, it would no longer be a gemstone (because the cuts are what MAKES it a finished gemstone), so you can't reasonably have fractional cut gemstones.

Now if you were to have a fractional uncut gemstone...it would just be a gemstone. There's no such thing as half a gemstone, because half a gemstone is, in itself, a gemstone. It's not like a pie, where the whole thing is circular, so half a pie is half a circle. A gemstone is, by nature, just a rock. When you cut a rock in half...you have two rocks.

So I would argue you can't have fractional gemstones in any logical way.

-t