Wednesday 11 July 2012

Take two apples . . .

One of the age-old questions is:

"Take two apples from three apples.  What do you have?"

What are the possible answers to this question?  Surely it is just obvious isn't it?

See the comments below for some possible answers.  Maybe you have some better answers.

4 comments:

Plasma Engineer said...

Living where I live, in UK, and having had the kind of education that I have had, the most obvious answer is "1 apple".

This is only the obvious answer because most of us were taught maths with questions like this at primary school.

I happen to think that this answer is illogical.

Plasma Engineer said...

Living where I live, and thinking about this problem as a logical adult, I think the most obvious answer is "2 apples".

You told me to take two apples, so I have two apples. One is left but I don't have it.

Are there any other answers?

Jeanne Desy said...

Speaking as an English major, that's wordplay, not math. Tricked again!

Unknown said...

I'm always tempted to answer these with "3 apples!" You may have moved them around, but there are still the same number of apples. Saying that, I would probably answer this with "1 apple". Thinking back, I think the ones I was presented with said "What do you have /left/?" as opposed to "What do you have?"