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Joe Pfeiffer Joe Pfeiffer is offline
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Default Mechanical Aptitude Test

Carla Fong writes:

Well, I got a 90%, (also got messed up on worm gears) but I think
there's room to quibble on two others.

#15 presumes a frictionless pulley - I live in the real world and know
that a straight lift with no pulley requires the least force.

#31 has no correct answer stated. The correct answer is 60 since the
actual mechanical ratio for the lever is 5:1.


I think they got that one wrong as well. They seem to be assuming the
center of mass of the two boxes is out at their far edges (that gives
their answer, anyway).

I'd also quibble with 44 -- you have to know a bit more about what's
going on downstream before you can predict what's going to happen in
tube B. If the tube ends at the edge of the picture, you could get a
vacuum in tube B...

There are some more where I got their answer, but I think other answers
are equally valid: I got their answer for 48, but "suction" is just as
good an answer for a mechanical aptitude test (it would be wrong in a
physics test). Likewise for 49, what do they mean by "easiest"?
Again, I got their answer, but I note diesel can be ignited with no
spark at all.

I had the same problems with poorly written questions in college. My
professors did not seem amused...


Course not -- we know what the questions mean, you should read our
minds! (I am a professor, and I'm joking)

Note -- I got 92. Missed the worm drive, two of the pulley questions
had similar enough pictures that I thought I'd mis-clicked and missed
one as a result, and the two quibbles above.