A good attempt when you don’t know the answer

February 26th, 2007 at 7:53 pm by David Farrar

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25 Responses to “A good attempt when you don’t know the answer”

  1. bobrien Says:

    Don’t laugh it is NCEA at its finest.

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  2. bobrien Says:

    Don’t laugh it is NCEA at its finest.

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  3. Peter A Says:

    Just out of interest, what is the correct answer to that question anyway?

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  4. Murray Says:

    42

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  5. Peter S Says:

    a^n + nab + b^n

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  6. Peter S Says:

    Murray’s answer was the best though.

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  7. llew Says:

    Reminds me tenuously of a John Wayne story – when he played the roman centurion at Christ’s crucifixion in The Greatest Story Ever Told…

    His line “Truly, this man is the son of God”.

    First take, he delivered the line exactly as he delivered all his lines, the audience would mentally fill in the subsequent “Pilgrim…”

    The director said “More awe Duke, more awe!”

    Wayne had another go, identical to the first. The director cajoled “More awe!”

    The Duke thought about it, told the boss he had it sussed., the director called “Action!”

    The Duke sombrely entoned: “Awww… truly, this man is the son of God!”

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  8. Rocket Boy Says:

    Sorry to be a nerd but Peter S your answer is only correct if n=2.

    The answer is more complex and is something like:

    The sum of (nCr)*a^(n-r)b^r where r goes from 0 to n and nCr is the binomial function.

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  9. Mark Says:

    Murray, I hear that’s the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything

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  10. Peter S Says:

    Rocket Boy,

    Correct. I’m waaaay rusty on solving the equations.

    I suspect, in hindsight that what they were looking for was something like

    (a+b)^n
    = (a+b) * (a+b)^n-1
    = (a^2 + 2ab + b^2) (a+b)^n-2

    etc.

    it depends on the Maths level that the question was aimed at.

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  11. iwikiwi Says:

    I think i will stick to running my printing press, UM wheres the on button and how do you run the toach screen

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  12. Mrs W Says:

    Is that the teacher’s writing in the top RH corner?

    I can make out “Very” and “Peter”, but what is the other word? “Funny?” “Furry?” “Fanny?”

    Hope this person doesn’t teach handwriting.

    At least I can read what Peter wrote.

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  13. lyndon Says:

    http://www.robmonroe.net/upload/2007/1/24/elephantintheway.jpg

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  14. lyndon Says:

    Another fave is the one where the geometry question said “Find x”, so they drew a circle round the x in the diagram and said “there it is!”

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  15. llew Says:

    “Another fave is the one where the geometry question said “Find x”, so they drew a circle round the x in the diagram and said “there it is!”

    Ha ha! I saw that somewhere only yesterday.

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  16. peterquixote Says:

    i never seen anything likes it
    peter brilliant

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  17. Murray Says:

    Yeah, saves a lot of pissing about too and you have time to score the chicks while the nerds get their pocket protectors in a tangle arguing about where X is and using up and the extra punctuation keys on the keyboard.

    It might get a probe to slam into Mars at 14,000 miles per hour guys but the slide-rule doesn’t pull the babes.

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  18. Razorlight Says:

    There was the University Philosophy exam where one 25% question was ‘what is courage’.

    The student answered with two words.

    THIS IS

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  19. Ms Klake Says:

    I’d have passed him for pure innovation.

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  20. crunch Says:

    bn±1, b=2,3,5,6,7,10,11,12

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  21. mavxp Says:

    Razorlight said: “There was the University Philosophy exam where one 25% question was ‘what is courage’.

    The student answered with two words.

    THIS IS”

    You forgot the punchline… the student got an A+
    for the essay.

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  22. Fredwzw Says:

    Greetings! Have a nice day!

    http://spartan.cis.temple.edu/synergy/_knobas/0000031e.htm

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  23. mhqry vnbfzd Says:

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  24. mhqry vnbfzd Says:

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  25. mhqry vnbfzd Says:

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