Editorial Tuesday 13th April Media confused by math?

Editorial Tuesday 13th April Media confused by math?

The headline "Maths professor stumped by seven year old's difficult homework" is believable and sad.

The activity that stumped the professor was a concrete block exercise. The task was to divide a reservoir of blocks depicting hundreds, tens and units into quantities matching a minimum

“Karla says: “I have three hundreds counters, 17 tens counters and 16 ones counters.

“a) Can she make two equal three-digit numbers? If so, draw the counters to show them.

“b) Can she make two equal three-digit numbers if she had to use all her counters? If so, draw the counters to show them.”

Because the counters are physical, they are different to abstract numbers. The number 486 can be divided equally, but the physical blocks cannot. Two physical expressions of 188 is possible. But what of 243? The constitution of 243 would be different (2x100, 4X10, 3X1 vs 1x100, 13X10, 13X1) but the number achievable. More impressive is the children (parents?) having to draw the blocks.
===
http://conservativeweasel.blogspot.com/2021/04/tue-13th-april-2021-current-affairs.html
AUAWN0414321