Ski race! Since all times are compared to yours, what is your time?

[Ohp518]

You are skier A, the first skier in a skiing event with three other skiers. Compared to your time, skier B is slower, by a time of +00:28. Skier C has a time of +02:13, and skier D has a time of -01:24. Who is the fastest skier?
Since all times are compared to yours, what is your time?
what is the order of times, from fastest to slowest?

This question was on my daughters homework paper. Not sure how to figure out the answer to what skier A’s time is. Please help

 

[Steven G]

you are skier a, the first skier in a skiing event with three other skiers. Compared to your time, skier b is slower, by a time of +00:28. Skier c has a time of +02:13, and skier d has a time of -01:24. Who is the fastest skier?
Since all times are compared to yours, what is your time?
What is the order of times, from fastest to slowest?

This question was on my daughters homework paper. Not sure how to figure out the answer to what skier a’s time is. Please help

a= b+c+d

 

[mmm4444bot]

Is your exercise statement word-for-word, as given? For one thing, it's a little ambiguous to say that skier A is "first" in an event. They won? They went first? Is it a race with four skiers moving at once?

… Compared to your time, skier B is slower, by a time of +00:28.

I read this as saying B's time is 28 seconds longer than A's time. (I've guessed they wrote the plus sign as a hint for students who don't understand that slower skiers have longer times.)

Skier C has a time of +02:13

This is a new sentence, not the continuation of a listing of compared times. Even so, I read it as saying that C finished 2 minutes 13 seconds after A, and I do not interpret it as a statement of C's time. (Why start a new sentence, and then say, "C has a time of 02:13"?)

… skier D has a time of -01:24.

They timed skier D, and the result is negative? Not. Just like with C's info, they are making a comparison with A's time. D was faster than A; hence, D's time is 1 minute 24 seconds shorter than A's time.

Now we understand that A was not the winner ("first") and that the skiers were not racing together. The exercise statement could be worded more clearly, like this, perhaps:

Four skiers (A, B, C and D) participate in a timed event. Compared to skier A, skier B is slower by 00:28, skier C is slower by 02:13 and skier D is faster by 01:24.

 

[Dr.Peterson]

You are skier A, the first skier in a skiing event with three other skiers. Compared to your time, skier B is slower, by a time of +00:28. Skier C has a time of +02:13, and skier D has a time of -01:24. Who is the fastest skier?
Since all times are compared to yours, what is your time?
what is the order of times, from fastest to slowest?

This question was on my daughters homework paper. Not sure how to figure out the answer to what skier A’s time is. Please help

The question assumes knowledge of how times are displayed in skiing events on TV. You have to know that one person skis at a time, and after the first (A), others are displayed relative to A (probably also showing absolute times, I would expect). So the + and - indicate taking more or less time than A.

I would be much happier with the question if they had clearly explained this. They seem to have tried to say enough that you could figure it out, but making you put two and two together adds that much more complexity to the problem, for those who don't happen to have seen a ski race recently. In fact, the problem may be meant as an exercise in figuring out an unfamiliar system, as once you understand the idea, it is trivial (if the student understands signed numbers, which is the other point of the exercise).

Note also that there is no information from which skier A's time can be determined; the first question must expect the answer "0", which is not really right.