Subject:
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Re: John Leo's opinion of "The West Wing"
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Thu, 3 Oct 2002 15:39:59 GMT
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Viewed:
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1001 times
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David Koudys wrote:
> It's like the problem in math class--a train leaves California at 4 p.m. and
> travels east at 50 kph, and a similar train leaves Maine at the same time
> travelling west at 60 kph... When will they meet?
I would claim that the most correct answer to this problem in a math
class is "I can't answer that question because insufficient information
is given." A teacher who did give this problem though should award
credit to anyone who provides an answer consistent with any additional
assumptions they state (so "They won't meet since if you travel due west
from any location in Maine will never enter California and visa versa."
should be awarded credit, similarly the answer: "They probably won't
meet because the network of railroads between California and Maine is
sufficiently complex that there are numerous routes which don't
intersect." would be a reasonable answer. A solution which said: "It is
4994 kilometers between Portland ME and San Diego CA and therefore it
will take 45 hours and 24 minutes before the trains meet." is probably
the answer the teacher was looking for - though the problem didn't even
state the cities, however, the answer "47 hours", based on the 5177
kilometers distance between San Francisco and Portland, should be
awarded only partial credit, or even no credit, since the answer is only
barely supportable by the facts given and the assumptions have not been
stated).
Math problems need to be completely stated.
Frank
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: John Leo's opinion of "The West Wing"
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| In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek writes: <snip> (...) If the point that still stands is "Everything in parenthesis was added by David", that is correct. If, however, the point that still stands is "and is incorrectly associated with the (...) (22 years ago, 3-Oct-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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