From mit-eddie!sppip7.lkg.dec.com!jc Wed May 20 02:38:56 1992 Return-Path: Received: by minya.uucp (/\=-/\ Smail3.1.18.1 #18.16) id ; Wed, 20 May 92 02:38 EDT Received: from crl.dec.com by EDDIE.MIT.EDU with SMTP (5.65/25-eef) id AA09002; Tue, 19 May 92 12:55:33 -0400 Received: by crl.dec.com; id AA03868; Tue, 19 May 92 12:46:01 -0400 Received: by sppip7.lkg.dec.com (5.57/ULTRIX-fma-071891); id AA13469; Tue, 19 May 92 11:04:48 -0400 Date: Tue, 19 May 92 11:04:48 -0400 From: mit-eddie!sppip7.lkg.dec.com!jc (John Chambers) Message-Id: <9205191504.AA13469@sppip7.lkg.dec.com> To: jchome@sppip7.lkg.dec.com Subject: rec.humor.funny #3578 - Freshman Physics and Heavy Boots In article , RICHARD@lane.cc.ukans.edu (Richard Kershenbaum) writes: Path: nntpd.lkg.dec.com!tkou02.enet.dec.com!jrdzzz.jrd.dec.com!pa.dec.com!decwrl!looking!funny-request Message-id: Date: Tue, 19 May 92 4:30:4 EDT Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny From: RICHARD@lane.cc.ukans.edu (Richard Kershenbaum) Subject: Freshman Physics and Heavy Boots Keywords: true, science, smirk Approved: funny@clarinet.com The following was sent to me by Dr.Adrian Melott, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy here at the University of Kansas: THE BURNING QUESTION OF HEAVY BOOTS I put two multiple choice questions on my Physics 111 test, after the study of elementary mechanics and gravity: 13. If you are standing on the Moon, and holding a rock, and you let it go, it will: (a) float away (b) float where it is (c) move sideways (d) fall to the ground (e) none of the above 25. When the Apollo astronauts wre on the Moon, they did not fall off because: (a) the Earth's gravity extends to the Moon (b) the Moon has gravity (c) they wore heavy boots (d) they had safety ropes (e) they had spiked shoes The response showed some interesting patterns! The first question was generally of average difficulty, compared with the rest of the test: 57% got it right. The second question was easier: 73% got it right. So, we need more research to explain the people who got #25 right but did not get #13 right! The second interesting point is that these questions proved to be excellent discriminators: that is, success on these two questions proved to be an extremely good predictor of overall success on the test. On the first question, 92% of those in the upper quarter of the test score got it right; only 20% of those in the bottom quarter did. They generally chose answers (a) or (b). On the second question, 97% in the upper quarter got it right and 33% in the lower quarter did. The big popular choice of this group was (c)...33% chose heavy boots, followed closely by safety ropes at 27%. A telling comment on the issue of fairness in teaching elementary physics: Two students asked if I was going to continue asking them about things they had never studied in the class. Adrian Melott -- Selected by Brad Templeton. MAIL your joke (jokes ONLY) to funny@clarinet.com. Attribute the joke's source if at all possible. A Daemon will auto-reply. If you don't need an auto-reply, submit to rhf@clarinet.com instead. -- To a man who feels, life is a tragedy. To a man who thinks, life is a comedy. [Who said that?]