He gives two hints.
Each element has individual value.
Chinese are sneaky.
Answer beyond.
The answer is 16.
10 + 10 + 10 = 30
10 + 5 + 5 = 20
5 + 4 + 4 = 13
10 + (3 x 2) = 16
[Each cat is 3 each whistle is 2]
The first three cats are wearing a whistle. The first whistles shown are paired. The last line has an x where you expect a +.
The problem with the arrangement is that it is not necessarily 10 + (3 x 2) = 16
It could be (10 + 3) x 2 = 26
I love this so much. I love that you have to notice the cats are wearing whistles. And you have to notice the whistles are doubled. Less easy to see on 13" screen. While it does match all those 2nd grade puzzles of finding the picture that's different from the rest. It's very child like.
And it was fun because it took me back to day I hosted a fairly large party at my house and I had to finish algebra homework before people started to arrive. But I was messing around changing all the numbers to random Egyptian glyphs and solving using the new symbols instead of numbers. It was stupid, but for me it was a huge insight.
When I was done I showed my page of drawing to the first guest arriving. They said, "Bo, you're a fucking nutter."
And the cats wearing whistles really does match how Chinese language is written. They combine elements for new terms. I look up Chinese symbols everyday and often cannot find them because they're combined in ligatures. Radicals in their language.
Egyptian language does the same thing. And that gives students no end of difficulties. Here is copy/paste of an email that came today. It bears on this subject.
No it doesn't. I decided not to include it. Too long. Too arcane. You wouldn't like it.
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