OK – there’s a show called Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader and a lady on there tonight had won $50,000, and was going for $100k! The question that sent shivers through her bones and caused her to not risk it and take the 50k was from Algebra:

if y=3x and 3x=12. what does y equal?

It’s funny to see how just the mention of a y or an x turns people’s brains into jelly, but they practically gave her an additional $50k and she could not answer. She said she would’ve said 4. That’s funny. What kind of a leap does it take to think y=3x=12 ??

Do they really have to go that extra step and say: y=12, therefore, what does y equal? Or y is exactly 1 less than 13 and exactly 1 more than 11. What does y equal???

The next lady had to try to figure out what the radius was equal to in a circle with a diameter of 4 inches. Also too tough for her. Never heard the word diameter before I guess.