(Mrs. Abrams: There are no vocab words in this blog. While you should certaintly feel free to read it, I don't want to waste your time if you're in a rush.)
What an interesting question, Mr. Cann. I bet you had to think really long and hard for that one. Okay Sam get to work. Did you know that you can divide both numbers by five? I wonder if that was on purpose. Probably not. Someone in the hallway is wearing loud high heels. I hate that. Alright so work equals force times distance. So 1250 times...Oh wait. 105 m/s is not a distance. Oh no. Oh no.
Okay, you know what? That's fine. I can handle it. I can handle being given a velocity instead of a distance. Do you know why? I can find the distance! I can find the...wait. No. You can't find the distance. The distance cannot be found.
So how is this problem possible?! Where is my formula with velocity? Do I have one? So how should I convert? Do I want to convert? Why is it so cold in here? Is the window open? Sam you don't have time to worry about windows focus on the test!
How big is 1250 kg anyway? Is that the size of an average car, or is it more like a person? Only science people weigh things in grams. Now, give it to me in pounds and the whole problem starts to make sense. Give it to me in pounds and the lightbulbs go off in my brain, painting pictures in my head. Ha, who am I kidding? It wouldn't make a difference.
What were you thinking, Mr. Cann, when you wrote this problem? Were you trying to trip us up? Because if you are, that's a nasty thing to do on the first question. The first question should boost our self-esteem, it should let us think we're capable physics students for at least a few more seconds. Then the next question should crush us, it should drive us screaming out of the room. It should leave us crying on the floor, begging for mercy. That's how this should have worked, Mr. Cann. You never want to flip us out on the first question.
Will you laugh while grading this? Will you fall out of chair laughing? Will you call up your friends, William and Borislaw, and will you all share a big chuckle over this? Or will you grimace, and pity my lack of brains? What I'm really trying to ask is, how much enjoyment will you take out of my failure? Don't get me wrong, I understand why grading my test is humorous. But still. If I'm miserable, you shouldn't get to laugh. Maybe that's not fair, maybe it's none of my business. But still.
Maybe I'll hand it in now, completely blank except for cross outs and doodles. Maybe you'll give me a few points for drawing a heart, smack in the middle of my workspace. Or maybe if I copy the formulas, really, really neatly, you'll be so impressed by my effort that you'll award me a point on this exam.
Do you make up formulas, concepts, principles, laws and just throw them on the test, creating a nice little hodge-podge of made up information? What's the point of assigning us homework if it's not even going to resemble the exam? Honestly, who would know if you gave us one easy problem? Would you get in trouble with your supervisor, would he actually be upset if there was a single problem that actually had an answer? One problem would have been nice, Cann. One solvable problem...well it would have been a nice Christmas present. But it's alright. Too late now. You win.
Btw: I managed to pull off a 48% on this test. And I was happy.
2 comments:
Jeez, Sam, and you haven't even moved on to #2 yet...
When I first heard of this question, I thought it was impossible too. But that was a long time ago; to be precise, before I knew anything about energy and its equations. For this problem, there is an extremely simple equation you can use to find the net work done by the car. The really funny thing is, you don't even need to find the distance....Anyway, the formula states that the kinetic energy equals the net work equals one/half the mass of the object multiplied by the square of its velocity, or "K.E. = Wnet = .5*m*V^2. If you substitute the given information in, you find that the work done by the car is 6.89 x 10^6 Joules. Hope that helps.
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