You never know when you might get tested.
An Indian bride has walked out of her wedding after her bridegroom-to-be failed to solve a simple maths problem, according to police in Uttar Pradesh.
The bride asked the groom to add 15 and six. When he replied 17, she called off the marriage.
Reports say the groom’s family tried to convince the bride to return, but she refused saying the man was illiterate.
I’m glad she had standards and the guts to stand up for them, but why stop at simple arithmetic? Clearly there ought to be a written essay question, something about history, a bit of a philosophy problem, and an exercise in writing poetry. Natural selection: no one gets married without a liberal arts education!
Or, at least, passing third grade.
You laugh, but giving a liberal arts test to my first husband before we married would probably have saved me from that disastrous marriage.
My little one could solve that and she’s 5.
How can you exist without knowing what 15 + 6 is?
Which raises the question whether this man was actually aboe to consent to such a complicated matter as marriage. Maybe the family had decided that they needed a very cheap caregiver for their mentally disabled son…
News I can use! I’ll tell my algebra students that my class will make them more marriageable.
Pretty sure she means he’s innumerate.
If this becomes common practice, it would be like an MRA extinction event.
From the same BBC article:
Last month, another bride in Uttar Pradesh married a guest at her wedding after her groom-to-be had a seizure and collapsed.
“Maths”? Somebody needs ta teach the English how ta speak English! ‘MURICA!!!!!
#4
Considering this was in India, she probably wasn’t speaking English, and the error is likely on the part of a journalist or translator.
However, given the silliness of the guy’s mistake, I have to wonder if he was flustered and taken aback, and sputtered out the wrong answer without thinking, or simply didn’t hear her clearly.
If she really wants to test him on this kind of thing, give him ten or so problems on paper. That’s seems a bit more fair than a math question popped out of nowhere with sudden death consequences for your wedding. I imagine a lot of guys would get flustered if they were suddenly given a question that could instantly destroy their wedding.
If there’s a fundamental incompatibility in a relationship and issues which are non-negotiable, that ought to be hammered out before the wedding. Just saying.
Like this one, for instance.
More like another reason to play D&D.
Considering this was in India, she probably wasn’t speaking English, and the error is likely on the part of a journalist or translator.
Um, no, that wasn’t an error, it’s English “English.” You need to refer to your English-to-English dictionary before commenting on such matters.
I’m sympathetic. My first husband couldn’t spell, and wouldn’t read. He wouldn’t let me read, because it “shut him out”. (But him talking on the phone for two hours in an evening didn’t shut me out, I guess. Or something). You think I didn’t check that out with my second? He can spell, can use apostrophes correctly, and reads all the time. But he’s only marginal at statistics. I married him anyway.
?
What does the police have to do with it, I wonder… can’t open the article right now, maybe it’s explained there.
Acquaintance with Cauchy’s residue theorem would be a reasonable criterion.
I know! Poor guys. Having their arranged marriages ruined by smart alecky broads who want a guy who can read and do simple math. If she was more fair, she would have given him an SAT test instead of exercising her right to marry a person of her own choosing. IT’S ONLY FAIR! I tell ya, feminism is ruining the tradition of arranged marriages! Why next thing you know, a guy won’t be able to murder his wife over a dowry!
This sounds a lot like an arranged marriage where the couple essentially meet for the first time at the ceremony. I have heard that such are common in India, and I just assume this story is one of those; ignore me if you want. The fact she asked him a very simple question, where his error led her to walk out and declare him to be even more lacking than evident; tells me she doesn’t know him and probably never met him before. I’m trying to sound gracious, rather than prejudicial, but I am bad at expressing my actual intent.
twas brillig,
I think it’s a safe assumption. I forgot which website I read this on, but an article mentioned the woman’s family was saying he had lied to them about his education. That sounds exactly like a classic arranged marriage. The things the woman’s parents look at in when arranging the marriage are that the man isn’t disabled or has illnesses, his family has a good reputation, and that he will have a good income (so that their daughter can be supported as she cooks, cleans, raises children). The last of those criteria is a classic one where the man’s family lies and exaggerates. I actually know of a horrible case of this in my own family.
Zeno #3
It certainly answers that age-old question: “When will I ever need this?”
“Maths” is perfectly correct in British and Indian English. And in fact, you “read” maths:
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=%22read+maths+at+Cambridge%22
I hope she survives this. And how seriously fucked up is the world that I have to hope for that rather than assume it.
If I were contemplating a LTR with someone, the first time I visited their home I would look at the books on their bookshelf. If they don’t have any, I probably would start looking for someone else.
If they only read ebooks, I probably would take then to a second-hand bookstore and see if they can leave without an armload of old books. If they can, I think we would have to have a heartfelt discussion about literature before the relationship could continue.
Let’s not leave out Rage and Revenge. Due to my interracial relationship and to living in Vancouver, I have been party to and an observer of many conventional and arranged marriages within several different ethnic communities.
The Rage and Revenge I speak of are the bride’s to both her family and her arranged-to-be in-laws. I have seen participants in arranged marriages register their objections time and time again with their parents, only to be bulldozed and disrespected; so the emotionally-abused to-be-spouse allows the planning to be done and the money to be spent, then angrily and spitefully withdraw at some very late point in the process.
This frequently leads to the rejetor FINALLY leaving the parents’ home and starting a new life. It’s terrible for the parents on both sides — a loss of face and of money: but sometimes that’s the only way to get through to them.
Because of the British Empire, most of the world’s English spelling and grammar is British English. But because of Television, the accent is more likely to be American. Thus “maths” is the correct spelling in most of the world.
karley jojohnston #4:
Agreed. Now, if had been ‘twelve plus one’ = ‘eleven plus two,’ we really would be talking about a degree of literacy…
English is one of the official languages of India, and is often used as a bridge language between many different and diverse languages.
How can you exist without knowing what 15 + 6 is?
There are congressional aides for that kind of thing.
All this chatter is all well and good but is anyone going to end the suspense and let me know what 15 + 6 is?
@moarscienceplz #21:
I couldn’t agree more! It doesn’t even have to be for a LTR. The last time I went looking for something to read in a new girlfriend’s flat, I found just an electricity bill, two celebrity gossip mags and a travel guide to France (and it turned out she’d never visited France, although I happily credit her for showing interest). Didn’t last.
I can add 15 + 6 without taking off my shoes.
@foliage(#27):
The answer is 1B.
foliage,
I’d tell you. But then I’d have to marry you.
foliage #27:
42 − 33
</h2g2>
I hope nobody finds my comment divisive, but I would just like to add that the bride will probably go forth and multiply with somebody else.
Meh, numeracy is entirely different from literacy. My wife is terrible at the first (under stress she’d undoubtedly flub the question posed) but excellent at the second and we’ve been happily married for 26 years. I pay the bills and she chooses the books.
@30 Who Cares:
But, wouldn’t the problem then be F + 6?
I got 10101 for an answer?
I also get 15 and 25. But I’m puzzled about 1B
grasshopper, #33
Well, then that’ll only add to her troubles.
Fuck, you used add already!
If only my brain would function today.
@moarscienceplz
I don’t own a bookshelf or many books.
Thanks for the Judgement that I am a person not worthy of a LTR .
The thinking engine on the Discworld won’t marry you then.
Was the bride’s name Lilāvati by any chance? :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lil%C4%81vati
@35
Yes, but F + 6 = 15
@30 (Who Cares): Aw, you took my joke! I was gonna say, “But he didn’t say ’17.’ He was a computer geek and was thinking in hex and spat out, ‘1B,’ which sounds like ’17’…if you don’t think about it too hard.”
@35 (shadow): No, F + 6 = 15. F (hex) = 15 (ten). Thus, F + 6 (hex) = 15 + 6 (ten) = 21 (ten) = 16 + 5 (ten) = 10 + 5 (hex) = 15 (hex).
15 + 6 (hex) = 16 + 5 + 6 (ten) = 27 (ten) = 16 + 11 (ten) = 10 + B (hex) = 1B (hex).
hex 15
+
hex 6
=
hex 1B
There are 10 kinds of people
those who understand trinary
those who don’t
those who thought this was a joke about binary.
Two tomatoes pronounced correctly and a wrap-drive engine stuck in reverse, unless it’s a day ending in y.
Get yer math jokes in early, tomorrow is π day !
@chigau:
awesome.
Reminds me that no matter how many categories I’m creating, I can always represent that number of categories as “10”.
====> yes, you fools, I can in fact represent only a single category as “10” in base 1, even though it might SEEM more traditional to represent it “A0”, I’ve seen math books use 1 in a base 1 system (which are stupid, I agree, which was a point raised by the book …but just because it’s horribly inefficient and generally confusing and stupid doesn’t mean you can’t do it in a logically rigorous way).
Fie upon π day!
http://tauday.com/tau-manifesto
Let me guess…arranged marriage?
When interviewing potential new hires was one of my responsibilities (I’m retired now), I wanted to give them this simple one-item test, but the HR dept wouldn’t let me:
You’re familiar with Einstein’s famous equation, E = MC (squared)? [I can’t do superscripts on this page.] OK, based on that equation, solve the following: E divided by MC (squared) = ?
She waited until the ceremony had begun and then she started the maths quiz? She wasn’t sure about his illiteracy until that moment?
That sounds like a bullshit story to me. Check out the names and addresses in the story. I’ll bet they turn out to be fake.
Down at the bottom of the page (at PZ’s link) there is mention of an earlier wedding where the groom had an epileptic fit during the ceremony – so the bride roped in one of the guests and married him instead ! Do you believe that ?
grumpyoldfart, #52
Depends how strict and old-fashioned the family was. The bride wouldn’t have roped in anyone. She would have been given to the runner-up suitor by her parents.
I’ve seen this news on several sites now. I don’t see any reason to doubt it. There are still plenty of communities that do an almost slave-trading type of arranged marriage.
I still don’t believe it. I think both stories are total bullshit.
triggered by @48:
“There are 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who understand binary and those who don’t”
;-D
answering @51:
1 {with E=Mc^2, then E/(Mc^2) = (Mc^2)/(Mc^2) = 1} ; (the {…} stuff is just to show my work)
re 55:
oops, missed [45] ;-(
@twas brillig (55): You’re hired!
I find the asking the math question is the weird part. The waiting until the wedding and being married to another dude because the first one had an illness are the believable ones. They’re all too real in arranged marriage cultures.
What did they expect? The guy was a God fearing sort. He could only count to twenty-one … wait for it … after marriage.
Georgia Sam@57, but what if M = 0?
chigau@45, well I understand trinary but I also thought the joke was about binary, so your categories are not quite right. If you think about it, there are actually 10 kinds of people.
“but what if M = 0?”
lim_(m->0) E/(MC^2) = 1
“…but why stop at simple arithmetic? Clearly there ought to be a written essay question, something about history, a bit of a philosophy problem, and an exercise in writing poetry.”
There would have been, but he didn’t make it that far.
Surely you mean “Englishes ‘English'” and “English-to-Englishes.” Only with gratuitous silent vowels.
I would like to say once again that I love the procession of post titles sometimes.
“Another reason to study math”
“It beats Vacation Bible School”
You know, whenever I see the people who show up to mindlessly yell “FAKE!” every time something amusing or cool is posted anywhere, I’m thankful that there are so many people in the world who are only good for spare organs.
I can’t stop reading this as a Long Terminal Repeat around a transposon. :-)
I’d wonder whether the poor guy was developmentally disabled or otherwise cognitively deficient and that his family had hidden the fact to try to get him married off. That, which seems likely if the story is true, would make him at least as much of a victim. And no, I’m not getting stupid MRA about this. I’m just suspicious of: 1) whether there would be many even below-normal intelligence adolescents/adults in India who would be likely to fail that question (this seems to be playing to some sort of “super-illiterate foreign savage” thing) and 2) what sort of cues prompted her to ask a simple arithmetic question of the guy in the first place.
@shadow(#35):
Uh no. That would be mixing. What you suggest is decimal + hex. I kept it hex + hex.
I did consider turning it into a matrix but that one would be a bit to involved to calculate an eigenvalue of 21.
Another good one would be F(8) or Fibonacci number 8.
Reminds me of the football quiz in Diner (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS3VuRbizDs). The bride to be had to answer a series of questions about football. The passing grade was 65. If she didn’t pass, the marriage was off.
It’s not a judgment of you. It’s a judgment of how interested moarscienceplz would be in you.
Now me, I’d have a serious hangup about anyone with so much of an insecurity issue that they felt prejudged on a personal level by a stranger in an open forum…
mond @39
Do your own homework.
c or 1. This is, of course, using the common convention C is a unitless 1, which makes the relationship much easier to understand: E = M.
────────────────────────────────
Whilst
<sup>does not work, this might (but, as as happened to me in the past, Preview can lie in this situation, in which case whilst it Previews Ok (with a superscript 2), I believe what may be posted will only be a c without the superscript 2): c²² = ²
³ = ³
This kind of thing is common in cultures with arranged marriages. You know, the kind where sex comes first and love is supposed to follow. Since money is involved, there is usually some hard bargaining before the wedding. In India, the custom is that there is a dowry. The bride’s family puts up cash along with their daughter and looks for the best taker in his ability to provide for her. The better the groom’s prospects, whether through his own talents, credentials or connections, the more he costs.
By my lights it’s a pretty sick system, but it’s a pretty common one. At least this bride was smart enough to make sure she was getting what her family was paying for. (Yeah, pretty sick.)
@11, Raging Bee
This leaves me wondering if you think the person you are replying to is talking about the word “maths” or the word “illiterate”. I’m guessing both that you think the former and that the latter is correct.
@nich, 15
So, you are saying this person wanted a guy who can read and do simple math? In that case, the concerns you are replying to (that the test was not fair) are completely valid. On the other hand, you obviously seem to actually be complaining about arranged marriages. But the bride didn’t call off the marriage because it was arranged. She called it off because of innumeracy. Though who knows, maybe that’s the only way she could think of to get out of an arranged marriage :/
@65, Azkyroth
………wtf?
#76 – You would be correct.
…and thank you for pointing out what I was being corrected on. I was really confused trying to figure that one out.
Or maybe it’s just another reason for adults to choose their own spouses after spending some time getting to know their prospective marriage partner, even if it’s a couple who’ve been ‘selected’ for each other through family arrangements or introduced through a matchmaker. A wedding should be a joyous occasion and any skill-testing questions to determine your partner’s suitability really should be asked long before the invitations go out.