Pop Quiz!

[asterroc]

Okay gentlemen and ladies, someone's cellphone went off so it's time for a Pop Quiz. Put away your notes, put away your pencils and papers, put away your calculators, and most especially put away your cellphones and answer the following questions.

That's right, I want you to answer it without a calculator and also without even writing anything down. I assure you it's possible. Please do your best.

[Poll #1536640]

When you're done, you may turn in your papers and go back to your regularly scheduled midterm exam grading.

If you're not certain of your answer, please feel free to explain your reasoning.

Comments

[q10.livejournal.com]

can i ask what actually provoked this?

[devjoe.livejournal.com]

I TAed some classes during my days as a student, so I can assure you that some students make errors in their homework they would have noticed if they had taken the brief moment it took to answer this quiz when reviewing their answer.

[q10.livejournal.com]

did i ever deny that?

i'm trying to figure out the precise shape of the provoking incident in order to understand what the information gleaned by running the question by us is supposed to be good for.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

It's not necessarily good for anything, as opposed to just venting frustration. There was a problem on one of my midterms where students had to determine the effective spring constant of a car's suspension system based upon oscillations observed after hitting a bump. More students screwed up this particular piece of arithmetic than got it correct.