美國小學生報警求助數學題 警察幫忙但做錯了

Police are used to problem solving, so when a little girl reached out and asked for some help with her maths homework, they were happy to help.

解決問題是警察的職責所在，因此當一位小女孩尋求幫助，想要解決她的數學作業難題時，他們很樂意幫忙。

Ten-year-old Lena Draper sent a Facebook message to her local police department explaining she was having a bit of trouble with her homework assignment.

萊娜·德拉珀今年10歲，她在臉書上給當地的警察局發了信息，說明自己的作業遇到了困難。

Instead of pointing her in the direction of her teacher, or her parents, Lt. B.J. Gruber decided to respond to her plea for help with a simple: "Ok with what?"

B.J.格魯伯少尉並沒有讓她找父母或者老師幫忙，對於女孩的請求，他很簡練的回覆道：“難題是什麼？”

Eager Lena quickly shared the offending question (8+29)x15 and was given this helpful tip: "Do the numbers in the parenthesis first so in essence it would be 37 x 15."

急切的萊娜立刻分享了自己的難題：（8+29）x15，隨後她收到了很有用的解題竅門：“先算括號裏面的數字，實際上就是37x15。”

Lena, realising she was on to a good thing, took the chance to pose another problem, this time (90+27)+(29+15)x2.

萊娜意識到自己碰到了好事，於是藉此機會又提出了另一個問題：(90+27)+(29+15)x2。

Lt. Gruber was confident. He had this. Again happy to help, he responded with what he thought was the right answer.

格魯伯少尉很自信，他可以解決這個難題。他很樂意的再一次提供了幫助，回覆了他認爲的正確答案。

What a pt there was one tiny issue. He was wrong. The answer he'd given to Lena ended up being incorrect, a fact quickly pointed out by family friends when mum Molly shared the exchange on Facebook.

真是一位英雄啊……除了一點小瑕疵--那就是他的答案是錯誤的。當媽媽莫莉將二者的交流分享在臉書上後，有朋友立刻指出他給萊娜的答案不正確。

The actual answer is to add the numbers in the second parentheses and multiply that answer - and that alone - by two, then add it to the numbers in the first parentheses.

事實上應該是先將第二個括號裏的數字相加，然後只將第二個括號算出的數字乘以2，然後再與第一個括號裏的數字相加。

"If you're worried about the police department's mathematical abilities, stand down," The red-faced Lt. Gruber took to the Marion Police Department's Facebook page to explain.

羞愧的格魯伯少尉在馬里昂警察局的臉書主頁上寫道：“如果你對於警察局的數學能力有所擔憂，放心吧。”

"Hoping it is truly the thought that counts since apparently I cannot!" he joked. "Especially since the answer was wrong, it was very nice for Molly to acknowledge our attempt to help her daughter with some math homework."

“希望這是算得出來的真正的'答案'，因爲顯然我算不出來！”他開玩笑道。“尤其是雖然我的答案不正確，但是莫莉承認了我們確實是想幫助她女兒做數學作業，這很好。”