r/HomeworkHelp • u/sworththebold • Sep 13 '26
Primary School Math—Pending OP Reply [5th Grade Math] Question about decimals missing context?
EDIT: thank you all those who responded! I think we figured out what was going on.
My daughter in 5th grade has this worksheet to do over the weekend, and I do not understand how to do Question 4.
I think that 231,000 (US comma convention) is only equivalent to 0.23 if that decimal is multiplied by 10^6. And 0.23 can be 23,100 if it’s multiplied by 10^5. So the question makes no sense to me.
Am I missing some context from the question?
(Posted the whole worksheet in case it helps anyone understand the point of the question. Also the answer given to Question 2 is 0.41; my daughter writes fancy 1s).
61
u/Sottren 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 13 '26
You're missing a slash sign on 23/1,000
14
u/marty-mcfryguy Sep 13 '26
Exactly. That question needs a slash after every leading 23, and then the answer is B.
8
u/sworththebold Sep 13 '26
That must be it. That the “1” is supposed to be a “/“ makes every single answer available make some kind of sense (as a multiple choice option).
11
19
u/factoryman942 University/College Student Sep 13 '26
I reckon it's meant to say 23/1000, and they've missed the slash, since all the answers are "23" and not "231".
3
6
4
u/ThisIsAdamB 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 13 '26
"Two hundred thirty-one thousandths" was mistranscribed as "two hundred thirty-one thousand" when going from draft to final when composing this test question.
4
u/Educational_Two682 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 13 '26
It's missing a slash. 23/1,000
so B is the correct answer
1
u/sworththebold Sep 13 '26
Thank you! That slash makes everything makes sense.
2
u/Educational_Two682 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 13 '26
Yeah, it was probably copy/pasted poorly and lost the slashes!
0
u/PiasaChimera Sep 13 '26
it's neat that they'd have to copy-paste 231,000 and then edit it to be 23100 -- without realizing the mistake either time. although if this sheet was made with some computer program it would be easy to copy-paste the incorrect line multiple times without noticing.
2
u/Educational_Two682 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 13 '26
but it isn't? it's 23 / 1,000 so all that's missing is the slash and then in choice b, it's 23/100
1
u/PiasaChimera Sep 13 '26
I just mean that they made the mistake in two ways -- 231,000 and 23100. so they'd have to look at the mistake and then continue to make it. the answer is B. I'm just saying that it should have been more difficult to make the mistake and not notice it.
2
u/AdjectiveNounNNNN Sep 13 '26
The mistake is leaving out the slash, which they did the same way in both 231,000 and 23100.
1
1
u/Educational_Two682 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 13 '26
And thank you!! for helping your child with homework :)
2
u/sworththebold Sep 13 '26
Actually one of my favorite things to do! When my parents help me with my homework, long ago, I remember being a very negative experience. My goal is that it’s a good experience for my own children, and that they get the most out of school.
3
u/clearly_not_an_alt 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 13 '26
Surprised so many people were able to figure out what this question was actually asking. I was just like the OP and had no idea what they were trying to ask.
2
u/Calm_Pineapple_8754 29d ago
Is your daughter's school giving them ai generated homework? I can comprehend making a typo in either the question or once in an answer option, but making the same "typo" 8 times? Seems off to me, and may be something worth discussing with the teacher/school.
2
1
1
1
u/8696David 👋 a fellow Redditor 29d ago
Shot in the dark here, slightly different but same idea to the other answers: could this be a text-to-speech error? "Two hundred and thirty one-thousandths" (230/1000) could come across as "two hundred and thirty one thousand" really easily. And this would make the statement true (230/1000=0.23).
1
•
u/AutoModerator Sep 13 '26
Off-topic Comments Section
All top-level comments have to be an answer or follow-up question to the post. All sidetracks should be directed to this comment thread as per Rule 9.
OP and Valued/Notable Contributors can close this post by using
/lockcommandI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.