On 05/12/13 14:38, Fredxxx wrote:
On 05/12/2013 14:20, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 04/12/13 14:35, Nightjar wrote:
On 04/12/2013 08:45, Andy Burns wrote:
Nightjar wrote:

Dave Baker wrote:

The 4 digit multiplication seemed utterly pointless other than to
test a small child. I did it with pen and paper

Both numbers had zero for the units, so the
answer would end in 00, which did not help a lot. The tens were 2
and 8.
2*8=16 Therefore the answer would have to end in 600, which eliminated
three of the four answers.

I also used the "look for a 6" method (along with a sanity check that
roughly 4 thousand squared is roughly 16 million) but they might have
fooled us both by having e.g. a multiple choice of 15,998,600 when the
correct answer would be none of the above.

I would probably taken more care had I actually been applying for a
university place, but that approach was good enough for my purposes, as
was thinking back to the last time I was in an aircraft at 38,000 feet,
on a clear day and remembering how far I could see, to guestimate the
horizon from the options offered.


That works until they set the question on the moon.


Would the vessel still be called an AIRcraft?

I wonder how many planets or moons are known to have humans flying
around in AIRcraft?

If you can change the planet, you can change the transport, and who said
it was a human?

"a Quargon is orbiting his 9000G high gravity methane atmosphered planet
Quargin as bleaghship and an altitude of 47,000 zurds, how many miles
away is the horizon?"

A. He cant, Quargons sense the world by direct grokking and are unsighted.

B. 3 feet because the stingship doesn't have portholes.

C. right round the planet because the refractive index variation of
methane under a 9000G field and adiabatic temperature variations is
enough to make the horizon above the line of sight. Any Quarg can see
the whole planet firm anywhere except inside his house.

D. no answer, because the Quargons don't have a word for horizon.



--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.