Comments on: Undecided

By: BoBliness

BoBliness — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:15:42 +0000

Damon thats a pretty decently hard question.
I guess discrete mathematics is a different course to the one titled discrete mathematics in Australia which is a high school subject (and not the tough maths)
Harsh.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:02:18 +0000

I love that this thread has spawned both math humor and now chess jokes — truly the spirit of dorkiness. “the geodesic structure of a carbon molecule”… genius, that had me laughing pretty hard.

By: Damon

Damon — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:57:20 +0000

One of the bonus questions on a discrete math test was, “Say you have 8 queens, how many ways can you arrange the queens on the board so that none of the queens can attack any of the other queens.” Let’s be honest, if you have 8 queens on a chess board then you probably CAN answer that question because you got 7 of your 8 pawns across the board untouched.

“Checkmate. Oh, by the way, in addition to whooping your dumb butt at chess I also left the queens arranged in such a fashion that they represent the geodesic strucutre of a cabon molecule.”

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:08:41 +0000

Thanks so much for the kind words, I will definitely keep drawing as long as ya’ll keep reading!

By: Marcus

Marcus — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:21:05 +0000

I’m glad you liked, Mike. Consider it some small payment for the welcome break you give me from my homework. Keep up the awesomeness!

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:05:48 +0000

Consider my mind blown.

I’m start posting more word problems, this answer was awesome!

By: Marcus

Marcus — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:08:31 +0000

I’m sorry, but as an engineer I have to say “it depends on the direction of travel.”

If they’re traveling toward each other from opposite directions, you’d get a different answer than if they are traveling in the same direction from different starting points. And then if they’re traveling in perpendicular directions…

In reality, you’d draw two circles, one with a 12.5-mile radius and one with a 15-mile radius (30 mph * 0.5 hrs, 25 mph * 0.5 hrs). The two drivers could have started anywhere on the two circles, driving toward the center. So your possible answers range from “2.5 miles apart” to “27.5 miles apart.”

If I had been given this question on a test (making sure it was worded as you say) I would have written down “14 miles.” Then when the grader marked it wrong I would have blown their mind with a little trig.

By: Chris B.

Chris B. — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:10:12 +0000

Too d@$3 far!

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:41:15 +0000

That is either the dumbest, or the most incredible word problem ever. I’m still trying to figure out “Mr. Smith travels at 25 miles an hour, and Mr. Pink travels at 30 miles an hour, if they pass in 30 minutes, how far apart were they when they started?”

By: Damon

Damon — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:51:31 +0000

I started out majoring in computer science. I got most of the way through because of vicarious knowledge acquired from Nick. Then I got to discrete mathmatics 2, where they had questions like, if there are 24 bullets and 5 police offers, how many ways can the bullets be distributed amonst police offiers so that no officer gets more than 8 or less then 3 bullets. WTF??!? My business administration degree tells me, from an economic perspective, if the police department needs questions like that answered then it’s time to take up a life of crime.