General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Internet is losing its mind about this confusing pizza math problem [View all]tblue37
(65,328 posts)accept the premise that Marty's 4/6 is larger than Luis's 5/6. When the teacher says that is NOT possible, she is certainly wrong, both for this problem, since the question explicitly says that Marty's 4/6 is larger than Luis's 5/6, and in general, because 4/6 of something relatively large (say, a gallon of water) is greater than 5/6 of something relatively small (say, a cup of water).
Thus the student is right, the teacher is wrong, and the teacher is obviously embarrassed now.
She can apologize to the kid and give the kid the missed point, and everyone else can just leave her alone, since she was probably up late grading papers and preparing lessons after having parent-teacher conferences for several hours that evening or fulfilling some other time and labor intensive obligation for the school at no extra pay.
When we are tired, rushed, and overworked we sometimes make mistakes. Tired, rushed, and overworked is pretty much a chronic condition for most teachers, so it is a wonder they don't make more of these kinds of mistakes.