[thechat] Last Math exam

[Luther, Ron]

**1st Vamp** noted:

>>Anyway, for the first question of my exam today, I wrote out the sentence
>>"i cant answer this on religious grounds"
>>in 8-bit binary, with the ASCII value for each character.
>>It took up 3/4 of the page in the answer booklet.

>>Reckon that's worth double points?


Hi 1st Vamp,

*Sometimes* you can get full or partial credit for _creative_ answers in math.

I've done well, (when bored), writing math proofs (a) as a play involving a 
lot of character dialog, (b) as a 'Perry Mason' style court case  "Isn't it 
TRUE Mr. Burger ..." ;-) , and (c) as an extremist political diatribe.

[I tried to answer one as a rebus once ... but that was taking too much 
time to finish.]

I remember hearing a rumor once that a participant in the world's toughest 
annual math test, <genuflect>THE Putnam</genuflect>, once answered a request 
to 'prove x' with something along the lines of "Assume the entire body of 
known mathematics ... the result follows from inspection." -- and that the 
judges considered awarding partial credit for creativity. I doubt that 
they actually awarded any - it's an *extremely* tough test and partial 
credit is VERY hard to come by, but they may well have considered it since 
they have a reputation for rewarding creativity.

But I doubt you're gonna get double points.

To get more than full credit for an answer you usually have to be more than 
creative, you have to go 'above and beyond'. e.g. If requested to write a 
program to solve a specific problem, turn in: (a) the solution to the 
specific problem, and (b) the least lines of code 'minimalist' solution, and 
(c) the solution to the general case that covers this specific case.  That 
kind of thing.


Good Luck!  Hope the rest of your exams went well!


RonL.
(former college instructor and long time math smart-ass)