Tricky Professors
Introductory Chemistry at Duke has been taught for about a zillion years
by Professor Bonk (really), and his course is semi-affectionately known as
"Bonkistry." He has been around forever, so I wouldn't put it past him to
come up with something like this. Anyway, one year there were these two guys
who were taking Chemistry and who did pretty well on all of the quizzes and the
midterms and labs, etc., such that going into the final they had a solid A.
These two friends were so confident going into the final that the weekend
before finals week (even though the Chem final was on Monday), they decided to
go up to UVirginia and party with some friends up there. So they did this and
had a great time. However, with their hangovers and everything, they
overslept all day Sunday and didn't make it back to Duke until early Monday
morning. Rather than taking the final then, what they did was to find
Professor Bonk after the final and explain to him why they missed the final.
They told him that they went up to UVa for the weekend, and had planned to
come back in time to study, but that they had a flat tire on the way back and
didn't have a spare and couldn't get help for a long time and so were late
getting back to campus. Bonk thought this over and then agreed that they
could make up the final on the following day. The two guys were elated and
relieved.
So, they studied that night and went in the next day at the time that Bonk
had told them. He placed them in separate rooms and handed each of them a
test booklet and told them to begin. They looked at the first problem, which
was something simple about molarity and solutions and was worth 5 points.
"Cool" they thought, "this is going to be easy." They did that problem and
then turned the page. They were unprepared, however, for what they saw on the
next page. It said:
(95 points) Which tire?