Juan Kerr wrote:
> On May 12, 10:16 am, Palindrome wrote:
>> The Todal wrote:
>>> "Alasdair" wrote in message
>>> news:s20g241s5ec7c900aeeqaj9ik3lndndibh@4ax.com...
>>>> On Mon, 12 May 2008 00:28:47 -0700 (PDT), George
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> "I am a 3d shape. I have one flat face. I have one curved face which
>>>>> meets at a vertex. What am I?"
>>>>> My 8 year old son's homework. Oh dear - I can't see how a flat face
>>>>> can meet a curved face at a vertex. All the rest are quite easy, or is
>>>>> it just me?
>>>>> Help, George.
>>>> A cone?
>>> http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/54681.html
>>> "Dear Dr Math
>>> Our 4th grade math textbook defines a cone as "A solid figure with
>>> one circular face and one vertex." This sounds reasonable until you
>>> read the textbook's definitions for face, edge, and vertex. The
>>> textbook defines a face as "A flat surface of a solid." It defines an
>>> edge as "A line segment where two faces of a solid meet." It defines a
>>> vertex as "A point where two or more edges meet."
>>> Assuming that these definitions are accurate and that I'm not
>>> misinterpreting them, a cone must not have a vertex. If a cone has
>>> only one face, then it can't possibly have an edge. Therefore, if it
>>> doesn't have an edge, it can't have a vertex. "
>> The secret of success at examinations has always been to give the answer
>> that the examiner would have given, in your place.
>>
>> I well remember a *university* first year question which gave a choice
>> of two, and only two, answers to the question of "Which is the better
>> source of energy?", (a) nuclear power stations or (b) coal fired power
>> stations.
>>
>> --
>> Sue- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
> To which the correct answer is "define "better"".
>
> Is it "better" for the country that our un-elected PM has a fatal
> heart attack? Undoubtedly.
> Is it "better" for the family he leaves behind? Undoubtedly not.
>
> "Better" is such a pejorative word.
You miss the point. This was a multi-choice question paper. Tick box (a)
or tick box (b).
It was actually an easy question to "get right". After months of
"nuclear energy bad" material, the question could have had "(b)
concentration camp oven powered power stations " and have staff still
expect all the students to tick it, rather than in any way indicate
approval of nuclear power..
--
Sue |