Buehler, Martin wrote:
> yes, you're right. it's for a quiz.

Then you can make up anything, like adding a variable in one place and
subtracting it somewhere else.  I guess I still don't understand the
question.

Were you asked this in a quiz or are you trying to create a quiz to see if
the students are sharp enough to reduce out the irrelevant variables?

If the latter, my highschool physics teacher had a good one that got a bunch
of us going for a while.  Take a basketball and put a hoop around it that
just fits (hoop same diameter as ball).  Now add 4 inches in length to the
hoop.  If you keep the hoop circular, what is now the clearance between the
ball and the hoop?  He asked this in class, and we all dutifully computed
the answer, with most answers right.  Then just as we were leaving he said
to come back tomorrow with the answer to the same problem, but what if the
hoop now went around a sphere the size of the sun but you still only added 4
inches to it.  When I got home I cranked out the answer real quick, but I
kept getting the same answer as the basketball case and I could figure out
what I was doing wrong.  I didn't understand my error until next day in
class.


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