Maths question / puzzle.

[souldriver]

Can any body do this?

Queen Esmarelda has 20 gold coins, she puts them into 4 piles.

The first pile had 4 more coins than the second

The second pile had 1 less than the third

The forth pile had twice as many coins than the second.

How many coins are in each pile?

[Catron]

1st pile = 7
2nd pile = 3
3rd pile = 4
4th pile = 6

[missspeedy23]

1st pile = 7
2nd = 3
3rd = 4
4th = 6

[souldriver]

yay I was useless at maths at school. This is a question on my 6 year olds home work.

I swear i never got any home work when i was that age.

SD

[ladyalex]

6 years old ????
Is your child at a special school for the extremely gifted ??

[Ice.Maiden]

My own two youngsters get equally-baffling maths questions, although they're 8 and 10. It also seems to extend to other subjects as well!

[barmy]

Answer is easy from the following formula

20= (x -1+4) + (x-1) + x + (2x-2) based on finding x

[ladyalex]

Thanks, barmy.
I'm still astounded that anyone could possibly expect a six year old to get to grips with this problem......
Counting out the coins into piles then moving them around to comply with the rules, which is presumably the only way they could attack it ,would take ages and really seems of doubtful value in terms of number learning.
No wonder kids are turned off maths if they are set homework like this which is far too difficult or far too time-consuming for them. Have teachers not heard of positive re-inforcement !
End of rant.

[souldriver]

Its true, these are the type of sums she is expected to do, and no she doesn't atten a school for gifted.