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Post by Linda Rhaldeen on Sept 5, 2006 13:36:13 GMT -5
Don't you just love the people that write math/physics/whatever problems for a living? They must either be professionally trained comedians or live extremely sheltered lives. For example, here's what I found today:
44. A flock of ducks is trying to migrate south for the winter, but they keep being blown off course by a wind blowing from the west at 6.0 m/s. A wise elder duck finally realizes that the solution is to fly at an angle to the wind. If the ducks can fly at 8.0 m/s relative to the air, what direction should they head in order to move directly south?
I would like to meet up with this "wise elder duck" sometime and find out why a bird with the enormous wisdom and talent to measure the velocity of the wind and the airspeed of his flock hasn't learned enough about vectors to solve his problem himself. I mean, if I were a duck, I'd want to have as little to do with humans as possible!
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Post by xangelkimzx on Sept 5, 2006 14:51:30 GMT -5
Our maths/etc. textbooks from about ten years ago used to only have British names in them like Mary, Jane, Sue, Pete, Paul and Bob but now they use lots of international names because people got offended. That's not really ridiculous, it's quite good. But maths in general is ridiculous, so I submit that.
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Post by s on Sept 5, 2006 15:01:18 GMT -5
Ahahaha, that's a wonderful problem.
A problem for today from my AP Chem textbook:
Suppose a scientist repeats the Millikan oil-drop experiment, but reports the charges on the drops using an unusual (and imaginary) unit called the warmomb (wa).
And there's more, an actual problem. But "Warmoumb"? Good grief. Like, the opposite of Coulomb. Ha. Ha. Ha. Also imaginary/fake units of measurement make me angry. What purpose do they serve?
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Post by xangelkimzx on Sept 5, 2006 15:21:31 GMT -5
I probably wouldn't be able to contribute to this thread ever anyway because our school is too cheap and our students are too untrustworthy to be allowed to take the textbooks home. Several people steal them, though. Hahaha.
Do you all have to buy your own textbooks?
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Post by Triangle Eyes on Sept 5, 2006 15:52:42 GMT -5
Do you all have to buy your own textbooks? I don't. The school gives them to us and they all have a number in them and the teacher records who gets which number, so when a certain number isn't turned in at the end of the year the student has to pay for a new one. |
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Post by Jenny on Sept 5, 2006 16:19:44 GMT -5
My school does that, too. I think it works well (until someone loses a textbook...)
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Post by Brownie on Sept 5, 2006 16:54:53 GMT -5
My school makes us but them!
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Post by Zavi on Sept 5, 2006 17:47:16 GMT -5
Do you all have to buy your own textbooks? I don't. The school gives them to us and they all have a number in them and the teacher records who gets which number, so when a certain number isn't turned in at the end of the year the student has to pay for a new one. That's what they do with our school system. But a couple people always lose the textbook and end up sealing someone else's, who thinks they've lost theirs and proceeds to steal another one who will think it's lost, and the cycle goes on. It's quite annoying. |
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Post by raoawr on Sept 5, 2006 23:14:19 GMT -5
I think only private schools make you buy your textbooks.
One time there was a picture of midgets in my math book, and there was a picture of a bunch of people with huge cell phones in an elevator and there was another of a girls football team. I don't remember any of the problems.
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Logan Moose
Bewildered Beginner
Miserable Moose
Posts: 0
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Post by Logan Moose on Sept 5, 2006 23:23:32 GMT -5
haha girls can'rt really play football
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Post by Wasabi on Sept 6, 2006 3:05:08 GMT -5
Well, I haven't had to do any problems to do with the ones suggested above.
We have just begun studying bacteria and viruses, so I don't think that there will be any questions to do with ducks throughout the unit. I failed all of my Science tests in the exams, and I really thought that Mum was really going to go ballistic at me because I hadn't done well in them. But she honestly didn't care. I hope that I do well in my other exams, especially languages. I would be rather disheartened if I failed on of those papers. There's a girl named Libby in my class, and she was really upset because she had failed her Film paper in the English paper. I was relieved at the sound of that, because that was the only paper that I was able to pass, out of the four that was given to us. But, Mum didn't really mind, because she knew that there was always something that I could work on in the NCEA exams at the end of the year.
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Post by Sora on Sept 6, 2006 3:53:50 GMT -5
I'm sure I know the answer to Linda's question, but can't be bothered to examine my Physics textbook again. I really need to study my formulas again, before mock exams.
Here's a calculus problem that's got me stumped.
When a certain freezer is switched on, the temperature drops according to the formula T= 0.1t^2 - 3t + 17.6 where T is temperature in Celcius, t is the time in hours. How long before the temperature in the freezer reaches freezing level (0 degrees Celcius)?
Give it a go.
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Post by Akbar Le Grey on Sept 6, 2006 4:21:05 GMT -5
I'm scared of people who write maths sums for a living.
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Post by A. the Returned on Sept 6, 2006 8:32:51 GMT -5
My geometry and Trig book is full of the most ridiculous questions, these are three of my favourites.
A fishing company has a fishing fleet consisting of a large storage vessel "The Big Freezer" and a number of smaller fishing boats. "The Big Freezer" is equipped with refrigerated storage holds. The smaller boats catch fish and then veturn to the larger vessel, transfer their catch to the refigerated holds and then go back to catch more fish. At 6am one morning one of these fishing boats "The Jolly Snapper" lies 15km from "The Big Freezer" and on a bearing of 200degrees from it. "The Big Freezer" is travelling West at 10km/h. If "The Jolly Snapper" maintains a speed of 19km/h and wished to intercept "The Big Freezer" in what direction should it travel and when will the interception occur?
The way they named the ships and tried to teach us about the operations of large fishing fleets amuses me, also the way it takes up so much of the page.
At 12 noon on a pleasant day in July an illegal fishing vessel is spotted at a point...
Any question that begins with a description of the day is at least slightly amusing.
With respect to the location of a mouse, a snake lies in wait at (5i+6j)m. The mouse moves in a direction parallel to the vector i+2j. The snake being vectorially astute(!), makes it move when the mouse is at the pint on its path that is closest to the snake. Calculate this closest distance.
I love the way the animals have thought and that they found it necessary to (!) to show how ridiculous this concept was.
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Post by s on Sept 6, 2006 18:23:55 GMT -5
When a certain freezer is switched on, the temperature drops according to the formula T= 0.1t^2 - 3t + 17.6 where T is temperature in Celcius, t is the time in hours. How long before the temperature in the freezer reaches freezing level (0 degrees Celcius)?Give it a go. ...Wouldn't you just plug 0 in for T and solve for t? Why is that difficult? Or am I missing something? Also, A., the (!) is indeed hilarious. The pictures in my textbooks are always absurd. A couple of years ago, my Spanish text had someone with a hook hand in it. Of course there are always lots of ethnic and wheelchairbound people as well. Dressed in like, '80s clothing. It's ridiculous. |
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