Laddie and the Scales
I was marking my youngest child’s schoolwork the other day when I came across an answer that made me laugh. My son, Isaac, immediately wanted to know what was so funny. When I told him, he saw the humour in his answer and gave me permission to blog the incident.
The question he had to answer was:
“My dog won’t stand on the scales so I can weigh him. How can I find the dog’s mass?”
Over the last six months, I have noticed that Isaac has greatly improved his ability to think through problems and give appropriate answers. Somehow, on this occasion, he seemed to have a relapse! However, it provided a good laugh for all of us.
The answer Isaac wrote was:
“Force him to stand on the scales.” !!
Isaac has a dog of his own. It’s a Sheltie, or Shetland Sheep Dog. It looks like a smaller version of ‘Lassie’, and in fact, Isaac calls his dog ‘Laddie’. His answer conjured up visions of him trying to force Laddie to stand with all four paws on a set of scales that were less than a square foot in area.
It was hard not to laugh every time I recited Isaac’s answer.
To his credit, when I asked him what a ‘better’ answer would be, he thought for a moment then said, ‘Weigh myself, then weigh myself carrying Laddie and deduct the bigger from the smaller’.
Well done Isaac!