You are 50 km from an electric power plant. Electrons travel 10,000 meters/second through a conductor. How long does it take an electron to travel from the power plant to where you are?
It doesn't. Electricity doesn't work that way, it's more like billiards - one electron jumps sideways, dislodges another which dislodges another and so on.
If its a typical power plant today, it will be alternating current (AC) and the electrons just keep moving back and forth, never getting anywhere. It is the energy that is transferred from the plant to your home.
Not all math teachers are also electrical engineers, so their questions can occasionally confusing.
Think of the problem this way---If an electron left the power plant and had to travel 50 km to where you are and you are at a speed of 10,000 m / sec, how long would it take that electron to get there?
Yes, so easy, I assumed it was "misspoken," and I reduced it to one of its possible meanings. Or perhaps the correct answer is, "What are you talking about."
Maybe he is trying to show that 10,000 meters is actually 10 km. If you convert the meters to km, or the 50 km to 50,000 meters, it becomes basic arithmetic with an answer of 5 seconds
But, hey---students are used to correctly answering questions by doing certain operations which they are assume are being tested by the teacher.
You can see even my approach was to assume you wanted an answer that involved manipulation of data rather than a critical examination of whether the question was an appropriate one---thus my attempt to make sense out of set of circumstances that didn't.
So we gave you the benefit of the doubt when we should have been in the mode of challenging you.
And, yes, mark my words---we student types will get you for that. Lol (and I'm 71.)
This post was edited by tom jackson at May 29, 2017 1:15 PM MDT
What you are saying is that students expect there must be a proper way of solving the problem, and so will not challenge their teacher. That says a lot about our education system as a whole, where many teachers do not invite critical thinking and challenges. I like E99's approach.
But I do think that it is reasonable for students who are taking a test in applied science to expect that "never" as opposed to "zero" or some other number is unlikely to be an acceptable answer---and / or that it should have to spending time vetting the reasonable of finding an implicit true /false question artfully hidden in the middle of a such a test.
If you invite me on a skiing trip to the Alps in the winter, you can't reasonably expect me to automatically bring my fishing gear
What his students could "reasonably" expect cannot be deduced from this post alone. It would depend largely on his teaching method throughout the year.
I disagree that exceptions to rules shouldn't be taught. Just as there are different teaching methods, there are different ways that individuals learn. Hands on, visual, etc. For some students, it may be knowing the exceptions that enables them to grasp the rule.
That is you, and perhaps that is precisely what E99 did do. Regardless, it is his classroom.
The exceptions to the rules should be taught, but not in a class where all questions are appropriately expected to have answers consistent with the subject matter---unless it was indicated that this test assumed all knowledge that you have previously been taught.
It is not at all clear to me that you have any experience in teaching.
Malizz 