Extra points for good reasoning
by Volker Weber
Comments
I'm not allowed to help the high school kids in the explorer program at the firestation with their math homework any more because of things like this. I tend to add questions back to the teacher -- like in this case:
How fast are the observers moving, and in what direction?
How many decibels is the sound? Trains are loud, and the human ear becomes overwhelmed causing sound to distort.
Do observers A and B have healthy, normal hearing?
This teacher is clearly a bune anyway. He didn't even include the frequency of the whistle initially - it's been added in pencil later.
A kid asked me to help with a basic geometry question. He read the question to me: "Are points A, B, and D on the same plane?". I answered "Yes." and he said "You didn't even look at the diagram." to which I answered "Any three points are always on the same plane." The teacher marked it wrong, saying she'd drawn 'plane N' on the page. I went to the school to speak to the teacher and said, "Your question did not ask if they were all on plane D. It asked if they were on the same plane."
The teacher marked the question right, and asked me to never help any of her students again.
... and don't forget the Weber-Fechner law, either.
