They’re math and engineering problems, but sometimes I wish our political leadership had enough honesty, creativity and humor to admit that they are as stumped as these students. It’s blowing the bandwidth budget, and I may not leave it up forever unless I can size them better, but I have to share them with you - too funny and smart! (H/T My Li’l Bro Thom, who knows I love this sort of humor so much I married one of these guys).
My husband, btw, did not find them funny. He immediately tried to solve them. When I showed him the last one he glanced at it and said, “x is 5.”
Idiot.
(click image for larger)
February 19th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Fever really does strange things to people.
February 19th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
ROFLMAO
Here are some people after my own heart. I used to want to write things like this on my math tests, but never did.
(Drink warning.)
February 19th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
My all-time favorite answer to a test question: On a college art-history test, my friend Charlie was asked to identify the origin and time period of a certain statue. The statue depicted a man standing at attention, wearing a loincloth and a crested helmet, and holding a spear. Stumped, Charlie wrote, “Doorman at the Athens Holiday Inn.”
February 19th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Aaargh. Your poor husband. He misses the eloquence and wit completely, doesn’t he? We literary/artsy-fartsy types positively revel in it. Well, because we can’t answer the questions. But. Hey. That’s what your husband is for.
February 19th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Oh my. I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time! Thank you so much.
February 19th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
hehehehehe…
such fun…
February 19th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
I love these examples! With the last being my favorite. When I took an Algebra 1 exam in High School, I was able to “derive” an answer without “showing my work”. I still have the exam with the teacher asking how I got the correct result. I wonder myself. Lucky guess I suppose.
Also, when I was in grad school, my micro-economics professor, who was a big fan of the Black-Scholes model, had a final from hell. My mind went blank, and if I recall correctly, some of my answers were not too dissimilar from those illustrated above.
February 19th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
I laughed so hard tears streamed down my face. Thanks. I needed that.
P.S. My husband’s an idiot,too.
February 20th, 2007 at 12:59 am
I love a little creativity in ignorance.
Back in junior high, I had a science teacher whose grading policy actually included the statement, “If it makes me laugh, it is worth a point.”
February 20th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Wonderful! It reminds me of a philosophy question: If a tree falls on a mime in the woods, and nobody’s around to see it, does anybody care?
February 20th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
If a man speaks in the forest and there’s no woman there to hear it, is he still wrong?
February 20th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
“Very funny, Peter” cracks me up every time!
February 20th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
My husband the physics professor, who actually recognized the elephant picture, says that he would have given at least one point to any one of them.
(He still has the giant “bribe” on his door that a couple of students made up a few years back. It’s a check for eleventy-billion dollars with a memo line of “Hard work pays off in the long run; bribery pays off today.”)
February 21st, 2007 at 9:45 am
[...] The Anchoress posted these a few days ago. Too darn funny for me to explain! Even the engineer, Calculus-cracking sig.other laughed himself silly over these! [...]
February 21st, 2007 at 1:24 pm
[...] Anchoress has a collection of creative solutions to math problems. I’m still laughing. Date Posted: Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 by rightwingprof Categories: Math [...]
February 22nd, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Oh, my! That was so funny, I had to share it with all the engineers I could find. More please!!!!
February 24th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
[...] The Anchoress ยป Eloquent Solutions to tough problems [...]