Cancer Posted April 15, 2008 Report Share Posted April 15, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER I can read that. While not the simplest thing along those lines, it's better than some I've seen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted April 15, 2008 Report Share Posted April 15, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Er. Well, I know I don't. I once took a class in Pascal, but that doesn't help me. Ever. Pascal is decent for teaching some programming concepts, but other than that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted April 15, 2008 Report Share Posted April 15, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Yeah. I have the basic structure down, and I get the IDEA of programming languages, but it's all Greek to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted April 15, 2008 Report Share Posted April 15, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Pascal is decent for teaching some programming concepts' date=' but other than that...[/quote'] I've done Othello and 3D Tic Tac Toe in Pascal. And I actually lost to the Othello program. I didn't know whether that made me smart or dumb. Compiler was too slow for action games, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted April 15, 2008 Report Share Posted April 15, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER I've done Othello and 3D Tic Tac Toe in Pascal. And I actually lost to the Othello program. ..and that's when the destruction began. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted April 16, 2008 Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER I think my most pointless exercise was doing Battleship in Visual Basic. That algorithm usually beats me, or it did, until I found a hole in it I hadn't anticipated. Making the game crash isn't the same as beating it, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted April 16, 2008 Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Awww. It should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archermoo Posted April 16, 2008 Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Awww. It should be. Eh, getting a program to crash is more beating the programmer than the program. And since he wrote it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted April 16, 2008 Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Win every time!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted April 16, 2008 Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Physics 101 question: do heavy metal CDs weigh more than, say, those from Air Supply? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archermoo Posted April 16, 2008 Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Physics 101 question: do heavy metal CDs weigh more than' date=' say, those from Air Supply?[/quote'] Which weighs more: A pound of gold or a pound of feathers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted April 16, 2008 Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Which weighs more: A pound of gold or a pound of feathers? Actually, that has a real, unambiguous, valid answer. Gold is weighed in troy ounces and pounds, and feathers are weighed in avoirdupois ounces and pounds. The two are different, with avoirdupois pounds being larger. So the answer is "feathers". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archermoo Posted April 16, 2008 Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Actually, that has a real, unambiguous, valid answer. Gold is weighed in troy ounces and pounds, and feathers are weighed in avoirdupois ounces and pounds. The two are different, with avoirdupois pounds being larger. So the answer is "feathers". Yup. I countered your "there isn't a difference" question with a "there actually is a difference" question on purpose. And if I'd asked "Which weighs more, an ounce of gold or an ounce of feathers?", the answer would've been gold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted April 16, 2008 Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER A more advanced absurd question is "Estimate the fundamental vibrational frequency of the Hubble galaxy classification 'tuning fork' diagram." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted April 16, 2008 Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER How about "determine the wavefunction for an electron oscillating in a potential well described by a Dirac function.*" I actually got this one on an exam. *A Dirac function is a "curve" of zero width and arbitrary depth, not that you wanted to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveZilla Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER How about "determine the wavefunction for an electron oscillating in a potential well described by a Dirac function.*" I actually got this one on an exam. *A Dirac function is a "curve" of zero width and arbitrary depth, not that you wanted to know. So what's the answer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Honestly, I'm not sure I ever figured that one out. I know I missed it on the exam, and I was so pissed that such a farcical question was on the exam that I didn't pay much attention when it was explained in class, which is not like me. Usually if I don't know the answer to a test question I will bear any burden, pay any price, etc. to find out what the answer was supposed to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER I had a take-home for my quantum final, and that had a sadistic question; what's the first-order perturbation to the energy levels in the infinite square well if the bottom is slanted rather than flat? The answer is zero, but after you spend 2 hours grinding through it and it all cancels out ... you don't believe it, and you do it again. And again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Hmm. It takes me 12 minutes to "take" the draft of the test. That's slightly longer than I want, applying my Magic Fudge Factor to see if the students can finish the test in the allotted time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER . . . Magic fudge . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER . . . Magic fudge . . .test Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER 5. The magic fudge factor is 5, for this level of this kind of test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archermoo Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER 5. The magic fudge factor is 5' date=' for this level of this kind of test.[/quote'] So you assume that your students will take 5 times as long as you to finish it? Sounds reasonable... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted April 18, 2008 Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER It seems to work, too. In other news, two baby kitties born last night to the tortie longhair momcat. Less color in the kittens: one's a tuxedo, the other is all white. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted April 18, 2008 Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Only two? That's fairly unusual, isn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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