How do you ride a bicycle?

"!Jones" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I once had a mechanics prof who was famous for giving one simple
question on the final. "How do you ride a bicycle?" was one example.
Another that I recall was "Why is the sky blue?" Your entire grade
depended on your response and he didn't give passing grades away. My
question was "Why does ice float?" which was comparatively easy to
"Why is the sky blue?"

At this point of the summer, quite sweatily.

!Jones said:

I once had a mechanics prof who was famous for giving one simple
question on the final. "How do you ride a bicycle?" was one example.
Another that I recall was "Why is the sky blue?" Your entire grade
depended on your response and he didn't give passing grades away. My
question was "Why does ice float?" which was comparatively easy to
"Why is the sky blue?"

Jones

Ice floats because of its lattice structure. The sky is blue because of the
atmosphere. You ride a bike by turning right when you're falling to the
right. Same goes for the left. Next? 🙂

--
Phil

Carl Sundquist said:

"!Jones" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I once had a mechanics prof who was famous for giving one simple
question on the final. "How do you ride a bicycle?" was one example.
Another that I recall was "Why is the sky blue?" Your entire grade
depended on your response and he didn't give passing grades away. My
question was "Why does ice float?" which was comparatively easy to
"Why is the sky blue?"

At this point of the summer, quite sweatily.

with great caution

datakoll said:

Carl Sundquist said:

"!Jones" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I once had a mechanics prof who was famous for giving one simple
question on the final. "How do you ride a bicycle?" was one example.
Another that I recall was "Why is the sky blue?" Your entire grade
depended on your response and he didn't give passing grades away. My
question was "Why does ice float?" which was comparatively easy to
"Why is the sky blue?"

Quoted message said:

At this point of the summer, quite sweatily.

with great caution

with reckless abandon

Quoted post said:

datakoll said:

On Aug 9, 8:50 am, "Carl Sundquist" <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

"!Jones" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

>I once had a mechanics prof who was famous for giving one simple
> question on the final. "How do you ride a bicycle?" was one example.
> Another that I recall was "Why is the sky blue?" Your entire grade
> depended on your response and he didn't give passing grades away. My
> question was "Why does ice float?" which was comparatively easy to
> "Why is the sky blue?"

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

At this point of the summer, quite sweatily.

Quoted message said:

with great caution

with reckless abandon- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

flip over dah rock and what do ya see....

In article <[email hidden]>,

Phil said:

!Jones said:

I once had a mechanics prof who was famous for giving one simple
question on the final. "How do you ride a bicycle?" was one example.
Another that I recall was "Why is the sky blue?" Your entire grade
depended on your response and he didn't give passing grades away. My
question was "Why does ice float?" which was comparatively easy to
"Why is the sky blue?"

Jones

Ice floats because of its lattice structure.

I just tried it. The ice did not float; it fell on the floor. ???

--
Michael Press

Per !Jones:

Quoted message said:

I once had a mechanics prof who was famous for giving one simple
question on the final. "How do you ride a bicycle?" was one example.
Another that I recall was "Why is the sky blue?" Your entire grade
depended on your response and he didn't give passing grades away. My
question was "Why does ice float?" which was comparatively easy to
"Why is the sky blue?"

I like the story about the prof who, on a philosophy final, posed
one question: "Why?".

Students filled entire blue books... but supposedly the student
who got an "A", answered "Why Not?"
--
PeteCresswell

in rec.bicycles.tech 'Phil said:

You ride a bike by turning right when you're falling to the
right. Same goes for the left.

You would not have passed. He wanted a discussion of angular momentum
and orthogonal vectors...the "right hand rule" and all that jazz.
The problem was to figure out what he wanted. A correct answer
usually ran about four pages or so.

Quoted message said:

Next?

That would depend on whether or not that class was required. I
suppose it would be a visit to the registrar to change your major... I
hear psychology is an interesting topic and lends itself to such
simplicity.

Jones

On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:53:11 -0400, in rec.bicycles.tech

(PeteCresswell) said:

I like the story about the prof who, on a philosophy final, posed
one question: "Why?".

I have heard that. I'm dubious, but I have certainly heard the story.

I had one once, in an education class, that went: "Write an
instructional objective appropriate for this class."

My answer: "The student will be able to write an instructional
objective appropriate for this class."

It must have worked because I passed. Never saw the final, though.

Jones

in rec.bicycles.tech Michael Press said:

Quoted message said:

Ice floats because of its lattice structure.

I just tried it. The ice did not float; it fell on the floor. ???

I had him for mechanics; that was his chemistry question. I think
that's heading in the right direction, though. The commonly accepted
length was about four pages; your whole grade depended on your
response.

Jones

!Jones said:

in rec.bicycles.tech 'Phil said:

You ride a bike by turning right when you're falling to the
right. Same goes for the left.

You would not have passed. He wanted a discussion of angular momentum
and orthogonal vectors...the "right hand rule" and all that jazz.
The problem was to figure out what he wanted. A correct answer
usually ran about four pages or so.

Quoted message said:

Next?

That would depend on whether or not that class was required. I
suppose it would be a visit to the registrar to change your major... I
hear psychology is an interesting topic and lends itself to such
simplicity.

I like not living from paycheck to paycheck, thank you very much 😉

--
Phil

(PeteCresswell) said:

Per !Jones:

Quoted message said:

I once had a mechanics prof who was famous for giving one simple
question on the final. "How do you ride a bicycle?" was one example.
Another that I recall was "Why is the sky blue?" Your entire grade
depended on your response and he didn't give passing grades away. My
question was "Why does ice float?" which was comparatively easy to
"Why is the sky blue?"

I like the story about the prof who, on a philosophy final, posed
one question: "Why?".

Students filled entire blue books... but supposedly the student
who got an "A", answered "Why Not?"

http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/oneword.asp

--
Phil

Per Phil:

Quoted message said:

http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/oneword.asp

I kind of figured Snopes would have had it covered...-)
--
PeteCresswell

datakoll aka gene daniels said:

flip over dah rock and what do ya see....

Sow bugs.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

(PeteCresswell) said:

Per Phil:

Quoted message said:

http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/oneword.asp

I kind of figured Snopes would have had it covered...-)

For my comprehensive exams at the end of university one of my
professors made a mistake in his phrasing and left out the bit where
the question says "explain in an essay ... blah blah blah".

It so happens that this particular set of exams was tailor made for
me. I chose the teachers, was given lists of reading material in
advance. No other student had those questions. Only me. Knowing the
professor very well I looked at this yes/no question that clearly was
not intended to be a yes/no question and wrote the word "yes" on the
first page of the blue book. I then skipped two pages and started my
actual essay.

-M