Re: Rule to Apply for Rates and Ratios

[Bob LaMontagne <rlamont@POSTOFFICE.PROVIDENCE.EDU>]

??? If you were to buy 10^23 atoms for a certain price,
wouldn't you want to know if they were hydrogen or
platinum?

Actually, those I've always found questions like the one
posed in this thread annoying and stupid. As John Denker
has pointed out - they have nothing to do with real
problems - and I thoroughly agree with his plea to answer
them and move on. Although, throughout high school and
college I always made it a point to give meaningless and
nonresponsive answers to such questions - but always in a
way that made it difficult to grade my answer as wrong.

The fact that you bought a dozen eggs for $2.40 tells me
nothing about the price of eggs. Maybe you're a bad
shopper! Maybe you bought medium eggs and I prefer jumbo.
If you really want me to divide $2.40 into 12 equal parts
just tell me so.

I used a question like this on an exam last semester. The
question asked for the increase in rotational KE if you
double the angular speed of a flywheel. It was amazing how
many students came up to me in the exam to ask what a
flywheel was. I also had complaints later from some who
were reluctant to ask during the exam.

If you are going to ask a question that involves any
terminology that is not defined in the text - define the
terms - and be very clear about the exact nature of the
answer that you're looking for. Don't assume everyone has
had the same life experiences that you have.

Bob at PC
On Spring Break  :-)

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 3/11/2004 at 6:35 PM Herbert H Gottlieb wrote:

> On Thu, 11 Mar 2004 13:27:20 -0500 Bob LaMontagne
> <rlamont@POSTOFFICE.PROVIDENCE.EDU> writes:
> > Eggs come in all sizes. The term eggs per $1 is
meaningless
> > unless the size is specified. No wonder kids aren't
> > learning anything in school - teachers can't formulate
> > proper questions!
> >
> > Bob at PC
>
> But don't we find a value for the the size and the weight
of an atom
> in our textbooks??  Aren't some atoms larger and heavier
than others?
> Herb Gottlieb from New York City
> (Where there is nothing that can be weighed or measured
> wsith perfect accuracy)