5*2+2/6

The other day my family and I went to our local Build A Bear Workshop so that my youngest could take advantage of a birthday coupon he had received. While there there was a contest to win Hannah Montana / Mylie Cyrus tickets. My oldest filled out her entry form while my youngest went perusing the accessories.

When I went to check on her, I took a look at what she was filling out. The normal stuff -- name, address, phone, birth date, etc. But I saw something on there that caught my eye. For those Canadian residents who want to try to win tickets, they had to answer a math problem. My daughter said, it was easy dad. I don't remember the exact problem, but, excusing the order of operations which they hadn't discussed in class yet, I'm sure she got it right.

That was the first time that I had seen anything about that though. Are they just trying to prove how smart the Canadians are? Or how uneducated? Or maybe it was just a psychological game played on us Americans to make us think that we were the ones too simple-minded to be able to answer the question. It didn't say, 5th graders and above must answer this math problem. It said Canadian residents.

So...

Google to the rescue. What the heck was all this about?

A quick search showed that I was not the only one to ponder this peculiar tactic. According to a Wired Magazine article (an excellent magazine by the way), it's actually required by Canadian Law. Who knew?! Those Canadians sure are a funny group of folk, eh? :-)

Mystery solved.