Here's a true story that happened here at Rensselaer.
An assistant professor gave his mandatory final exam for Physics I last
December during final exam week. As is prone to happen here in Troy, NY it
snowed, hard. The professor noted during the exam that a few students (who
as it happened all new each other) were missing. The next day he got a
phone call. Needless to say it was one of the students who missed the
exam. He claimed that he got stuck in a friend's apartment in Albany (only
about 15 to 20 minutes away barring snow) and was wondering if he could
take the exam now? Very reluctantly, the instructor told the student he
could come in and take a make-up exam. The next thing the professor knew,
he not only had the student who called but the rest of his gang of friends
all claiming they were stuck together in Albany. Well, the instructor was
livid. Not knowing what to do he sent them all away and told them to come
back in 30 minutes.
When they came back he was ready for them. He told them before they could
take the make-up exam they had to pass a small oral quiz. He set the four
students down in opposite corners of a room and handed each of them a blank
sheet of paper and instructed them to write their names and the answers to
the following questions...
1) What color was the car you drove in to Albany?
2) What floor was the apartment on?
3) What color was the apartment?
4) How many rooms did it have?
He told me that some the guys didn't even try to answer any of the
questions!!! They just knew they were exposed. He sent them on their way
and failed them all.
Interestingly enough this true story may be based on a not-so-true story.
The professor told me that in the 30 minutes he had to try and figure out
what to do a story came him about a similar situation that supposedly
happened here at Rensselaer, involving a rather famous teacher here...
Four students come to the instructor and say they couldn't make it to a
test because while they were on their way to the exam their car go a flat.
The professor sat them in the four corners and asked them each to write the
answer to one question: "What tire was it."
I doubt that this second story is really true. I have a natural tendency
to be on the watch for urban (university) myths. I think they are fun to
collect. Here at RPI, like just about any other school, we have a ton of
them. The thing I find the most interesting is that some people buy into
every one of them hook, line, and sinker. Perhaps there is a lesson in
that for us physics instructors!
Cheers,
Jeff