I see the where the confusion is developing from. In the actuarial world, the equals sign
means equality, where as in the elementary education world, the equals sign means do the
computation.
This problem should not have been submitted in the fashion that it was with the equals
sign, but rather as a word problem (diamonds-38 times 11 divided by 5, etc).
Unfortunately, this would cause one to look at order of operations (which is slightly
beyond the scope of third grade math), and thus would give a different answer.
Either solution to this problem is correct - the only difference is from who's point of
view you perceive the problem from : the 3rd grader or the actuary. In this case, take
the 3rd grader.
Michael
--Michael ClabornActuarial AnalystThe Infinity Group phone : (205) 803-8274 fax : (205) 803-8487 email : michael.claborn@infinity-insurance.com
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