"...adding the two numbers to the right and left of it on the row above it..."
Doesn't make a whole lot of sense. What is the "it"?
row 1: is obviously easy.
row 2: I think you are adding 0 to 1 and 1 to 0 to get 1 and 1
row 3: You are adding 0 + 1 for the first item, 1 + 1 for the second, and 1 + 0 for the third.
row 4: You are adding 0 + 1 for the first number, 1 + 2 for the second...but the directions say "to the left AND right of it" which makes me think that the answer should be 4, not 3. 1 + 2 + 1. Really, you are only adding the number to the left of "it" (which still isn't clear). And actually, for the first half of the line you are adding the number to the left and for the second half of the line you are adding the number to the right.
Smart people suffer from analysis paralysis - that's why they suck at simple multiple choice questions. "But it could mean [...]"
No, just take the obvious.
> Each element in Pascal’s Triangle is found by adding the two numbers to the right and left of it on the row above it; where these don’t exist, they are assumed to be zero.
Subject of the sentence: 'Each element'
So, "adding two numbers to the right and left of it on the row above it" means "adding the two numbers to the above right and above left of an element."
> So I think your directions are probably confusing people
Not my directions!
Still, this thread should be useful to OP. There are people who get the problem, and there are people who don't get the problem, and smartness isn't the deciding factor.
(I'm stupid, and not a programmer, but I understood what the problem was and what the desired result would be. Other people are smarter than I am, and are programmers, but didn't seem to grok the question.)
Oops, didn't mean your directions but the OP's, of course. Just thought this thread was a good place for the answer and you had a nicely formatted pyramid.
And, for the record, I'm a programmer, think I'm reasonably intelligent, and still not entirely sure I get the question based on the description. Language is tough sometimes.
"...adding the two numbers to the right and left of it on the row above it..."
Doesn't make a whole lot of sense. What is the "it"?
row 1: is obviously easy. row 2: I think you are adding 0 to 1 and 1 to 0 to get 1 and 1 row 3: You are adding 0 + 1 for the first item, 1 + 1 for the second, and 1 + 0 for the third. row 4: You are adding 0 + 1 for the first number, 1 + 2 for the second...but the directions say "to the left AND right of it" which makes me think that the answer should be 4, not 3. 1 + 2 + 1. Really, you are only adding the number to the left of "it" (which still isn't clear). And actually, for the first half of the line you are adding the number to the left and for the second half of the line you are adding the number to the right.
What you want:
row 1: 0 + 1 row 2: 0 + 1, 1 + 0 row 3: 0 + 1, 1 + 1, 1 + 0 row 4: 0 + 1, 1 + 2, 2 + 1, 1 + 0 row 5: 0 + 1, 1 + 3, 3 + 3, 3 + 1, 1 + 0 row 6: 0 + 1, 1 + 4, 4 + 6, 6 + 4, 1 + 0
So I think your directions are probably confusing people.
Of course, you still probably aren't going to increase your percentages much, but you could be clearer in what the problem actually is.