I just saw the answer to the bat and ball problem within a few seconds. As I remember, my thought process was something like: Could it be 10 cents? No, that adds up to $1.20. So there’s an extra 10 cents—oh, of course, the difference between $1 and $1.10 has to be distributed evenly between both items, so the answer is 5 cents.
I’ve taken a course that covered simultaneous equations, but my memory of it is hazy enough that I’m sure that method would’ve taken me much longer.
I’m going to pull a reverse true scotsman here and say that is simultaneous equations. (When we think of ‘solving simultaneous equations’ we imagine people pulling the answer out, rather than pushing the solution in and seeing if it fits—solving versus checking as it were.)
I just saw the answer to the bat and ball problem within a few seconds. As I remember, my thought process was something like: Could it be 10 cents? No, that adds up to $1.20. So there’s an extra 10 cents—oh, of course, the difference between $1 and $1.10 has to be distributed evenly between both items, so the answer is 5 cents.
I’ve taken a course that covered simultaneous equations, but my memory of it is hazy enough that I’m sure that method would’ve taken me much longer.
I’m going to pull a reverse true scotsman here and say that is simultaneous equations. (When we think of ‘solving simultaneous equations’ we imagine people pulling the answer out, rather than pushing the solution in and seeing if it fits—solving versus checking as it were.)