Judging Size

Situations arise where people have cause to visit an urgernt care or emergency center. For older people such a visit, no matter the cause, includes a required test of our cognitive abilities. One part of that test is to ask which of the following figures is the largest?

The answer that the young medics want is the triangle. It has been my somewhat perverse pleasure to point out to them that the rectangle is the same width as the triangle and it is half the height of the triangle. Therefore, the rectangle and the triangle have the same area. In general, at first, those medics do not believe me and I have to spend time reviewing the formula for them and then showing them the accuracy of my measurements. Of course they refuse to change the test even though I have shown them its error. All of which leaves me sure that I passed the test but not as confident that they have.

©Roger M. Palay Saline, MI 48176 January, 2018