Re: scientific questions


"g" <gillawton@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:...
> There is a favorite trick question among physics teachers that is some
> variation on the following:
>
> A vehicle's driver leaves Boston for a city 200 miles away and, due to
> heavy traffic, averages 30 miles per hour, for the first 100 miles.
> Seeing that he will be late for an appointment, unless he averages 60
> miles per hour for the whole distance, he realizes he must average 60
> miles per hour over the distance of the entire 200 miles. How fast must
> he
> drive to make up for lost time?
>
> A surprising number of students say, 120 miles per hour... but that would
> be illegal.
>
> Not only would it be illegal, it would be wrong.
>
> At 30 miles per hour, for 100 miles, it has taken two and a half hours to
> get halfway. Not even if the driver were to drive the second 100 miles in
> zero minutes, he missed his appointment half and hour ago.
>
> Who all have you murdered in the past ten years? And, don't be evasive,
> no answer consisting of anything but names of the people is acceptable.
>
> Do you still beat your wife?
>
> The answers to questions in science, just as in calculations of time and
> distance and speed, or law, or family relations cannot be any more valid
> than the questions asked, and the way they are asked, and the constraints
> put upon
> how the answerer must cage his reply.
>
> But some say there are no stupid questions... just stupid answers.
>
> Not so.
>
> But there is one thing worse than being asked a stupid question, and that
> is being chastised by the asker, for not providing an answer that is not
> acceptable to him or her.
>
>
> g

I know. I know. He missed it 3 minutes ago. Just checking to see if
anybody
was paying attention.

g


.

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