2 March 04 - During Yr 7 Maths, I was going through a question with the kids.
The question was: "Jack has to pay 125 pounds to the radio station daily for advertising. How much does he need to pay if he advertises everyday on the radio in the month of May?"
Answer: 125 X 31 = 3875 pounds.
Me: "So who got this question wrong?"
Flynn raises up his hand...
His answer: 125 X 29 = 3625 pounds.
And he said, "I thought the month of May has 29 days! In fact, I'm very sure about it because the calendar in front of me in my room says so - and I checked it before doing the qn!"
Me trying to keep a straight face: "Well Flynn, I'm pretty certain that May has 31 days..." (but behind in my mind, I'm doing a brain scan that I'm correct that May has 31 days cos' we all know my Math is atrocious as well =P )
And we have a very adamant Flynn saying: "But the calendar really said May has 29 days!"
"Hmm.. we'll have a deal Flynn. You're gonna bring that calendar of yours to school tmrw and show it to me. If it really states that May has 29 days, I'm going to give you $10. However, if that calendar doesn't say May has 29 days, you're gonna buy me ice-cream from the primary school next door. How's that?"
"you're really gonna give me $10? Oh yeah sure! I'm definitely going to bring it tmrw and show it to you that May has 29 days. And I'll have $10 from you" - and to make sure he remembered, Flynn even wrote our bet down in his homework diary book.
So quite naturally, that became quite a big talking point in the staff room today haha...
But hey Flynn was so confident that his calendar stated there's 29 days in May that I can't help but wonder whether is there any special year that some Roman guy in charge of the calendar decreed that May has 29 days... Teachers can be wrong too yah :)