Rich Ulrich wrote:
> Construing the language as precisely as possible, but being careful to
> take into account the full language of the question and the
> multiple-choice answers, what do you think the correct answer is?
>
> Do you think the question is actually OK? Is the wording good enough
> as it stands? Or, as worded, could there be a legitimate uncertainty
> about which answer is correct?
>
> BEGIN QUESTION TEXT
>
> 37. When Matt's and Damien's broad jumps were measured accurately to
> the nearest foot, each measurement was 21 feet. Which statement best
> describes the greatest possible difference in the lengths of Matt¹s
> jump and Damien's jump?
>
> A. One jump could be up to 1/4 foot longer than the other.
> B. One jump could be up to 1/2 foot longer than the other.
> C. One jump could be up to 1 foot longer than the other.
> D. One jump could be up to 2 feet longer than the other.
>
> END QUESTION TEXT
I guess I don't see any problem with this. "Accurately to the nearest
foot" does not mean the same thing as "to within one foot" or "to an
accuracy/tolerance of plus or minus one foot" which I suppose yields the
canonical wrong answer. The use of the word "nearest" is crucial.
The choice of answers (and "best" in the rubric) rules out any quibbles
about banker's rounding, etc. Options such as
C'. One jump could be up to 1 foot longer than the other, but not 1 foot
longer.
C". One jump could be up to 1 foot longer than the other, or 1 foot
longer.
would be fiendish.
The question could be made clearer by putting a comma after
"accurately", and simpler by furthermore adding "and then rounded":
When Matt's and Damien's broad jumps were
measured accurately, and then rounded to
the nearest foot, each measurement was 21
feet.
However, while this takes less care to read, I do not think it says
anything that the other question did not - except perhaps that in the
original question "accurately to the nearest foot" *might* mean "with a
tolerance of six inches or less" without requiring it to actually yield
a round number of feet. But since we're given that the results WERE an
even number of feet this is academic.
The question may be criticised for being false to reality - at the
level of competition at which people jump 21 feet (the record is about
29 ft; 21 ft seems to be about male high school championship level, or
perhaps national level for the age group at which the problem was
aimed!) I cannot imagine anybody bothering with such an approximate
measurement. One could put in
"The reporter for the school newspaper, who was only interested in
football and cheerleading, rounded the lengths to the nearest foot and
published both as 21 feet."
-Robert Dawson
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