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This was a question that i came across in my 7 year old daughters book. My wife and i have argued at length whether the two numbers should be added and subtracted.

I think the statement is ambiguous and both 140 and 46 can be the correct answers.

Below is the screenshot of a similar question in the book.

enter image description here

Kumar Bibek
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    I would assume that they are asking for $96+47$, but I agree that the way you phrased it is unclear. – lulu Dec 29 '21 at 14:39
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    Yes, not a very clear question. You could also say that it is about twice as much. Or 104% more. – Bram28 Dec 29 '21 at 14:42
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    @lulu And personally I would gave guessed they were asking for 96-47. That just shows the ambiguity of this question :P – Bram28 Dec 29 '21 at 14:43
  • @Bram28 This was also my guess and it is the most natural interpretation of this exercise. – Peter Dec 29 '21 at 14:45
  • @Bram28 But bear in mind that we don't have the actual phrasing of the question, along with any context. If nothing else: For a $7$ year old's workbook, there really ought to be worked examples to go along with the questions. – lulu Dec 29 '21 at 14:46
  • Theres no context, its just this statement and then a box to fill the answer is there. – Kumar Bibek Dec 29 '21 at 14:48
  • Do you have a link to the workbook? – lulu Dec 29 '21 at 14:50
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    Should stress: it is by no means unusual or surprising to find a poorly phrased question in a school book, sadly. I'm just thinking that if we had the workbook we might be able to reverse engineer the question they intended. – lulu Dec 29 '21 at 14:52
  • I dont have a link to the online version. Have attached a photo though – Kumar Bibek Dec 29 '21 at 14:57
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    I now agree that it can also be meant as the sum. Really terribly formulated. By the way, now we have $93$ instead of $96$. – Peter Dec 29 '21 at 15:00
  • The photo does not supply context. As I said, for young students one really, really ought to include worked examples in with the homework. Perhaps there are similar, but worked, questions elsewhere? Again: maybe it's just a poorly phrased problem. If so, there's not much to be done beyond pointing out the ambiguity. – lulu Dec 29 '21 at 15:02
  • Yep. The actual numbers were different. Didn't remember them while typing out the question. Nevertheless, the statement is still the same – Kumar Bibek Dec 29 '21 at 15:02
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    Have you looked at how addition and subtraction are taught in her book? I would be shocked if the first time that phrasing was used was in the problem set. – John Douma Dec 29 '21 at 15:07
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    @JohnDouma Yes, that's my point. With young students, one ought to take exceptional care with phrasing. There really should be prior instances of this formulation. – lulu Dec 29 '21 at 15:08
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    @lulu But he has the book. It should be clear. To me, $93$ more than $47$ is $140$. For subtraction, it should be worded as "how much more is $93$ than $47$?". Either way, the book should clear this up. – John Douma Dec 29 '21 at 15:11
  • If my child understood how to solve an unambiguous question in general, I would be happy enough and call it a day. If it was for a school assignment, I would suggest clearly stating what her assumption is and answer accordingly. – Golden_Ratio Dec 29 '21 at 15:27
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    Clearly the only correct answer is to track down the book author and send them an angry letter. – Stef Dec 29 '21 at 15:32
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    It could make a fun starter question for a class to discuss as they came to realised the ambiguity... – Martin Hansen Dec 29 '21 at 15:37
  • If you can't search the book for similar formulations, then I suggest bringing the matter to the instructor's attention. And (possibly) seeking a better written workbook. – lulu Dec 29 '21 at 15:41
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    Awfully phrased question. Are there any other places in the book where the authors possibly use the same terminology, but in an already-solved problem? If yes, what do they mean? (Addition or subtraction?) "Ask the instructor" may be a choice, but there are instructors who have the secret "answer book" in which they will have read that the "right" answer here is $140$ (or $46$?!) - and for those people the argument is over. Hope this one is more reasonable than that. –  Dec 30 '21 at 12:48
  • The principle problem of text exercises : Much care is needed to formulate them clearly. It is well possible that the author of the book did not notice this ambiguity , to be honest , I might have overlooked it as well. – Peter Dec 30 '21 at 12:56

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English is not my native language, but I think that a better match would be

  • How much is $93$ more than $47$ ? Answer: $140$.

  • By how much is $93$ more than $47$ ? Answer: $46$.

This said, the phrasing is indeed quite dangerous.

  • The second should be "How much more is 93 than 47?". There is no ambiguity in this problem. First graders are taught to add by placing their finger on the zero of the number line and counting forward by the first number and then further by the second number. It is perfectly natural to say $3 + 5$ is obtained by counting to the right by three and then five more. I really doubt that a professional editor would allow "How much is 93 more than 47?" to mean subtraction. – John Douma Dec 30 '21 at 18:23
  • @JohnDouma "There is no ambiguity in this problem": if there wasn't, this post would not exist. –  Dec 31 '21 at 10:20
  • The post exists because a non-native speaker thinks that "How much is 93 more than 47" could mean subtraction. That is no more valid than the statement "I am having twenty dollars". – John Douma Dec 31 '21 at 13:28
  • @JohnDouma: who told you that the OP is non-native ? –  Dec 31 '21 at 16:27
  • You are correct. That was a poor assumption on my part. He could be someone who just doesn't understand English that well. – John Douma Dec 31 '21 at 16:31