On Sun, 28 May 2017 17:23:38 +0000, Tim+ wrote:

Johnny B Good wrote:
On Sun, 28 May 2017 06:38:57 +0000, Tim+ wrote:


Or, as I was forced to conclude, a question of ergonomics relating to
reduction of fatigue induced stress on that classic and timeless
mechanical system, the musculoskeletal system of the butcher himself!
:-)

Alternatively, the answer could be "none of the above" as the meat
clearly already has a hook attached and he can hang it on the rail
anywhere he likes.

An excellent point! Sadly, the rules of the game, as set by the
examiner, rather precludes such an accurate answer. Indeed, this has
meant that quite a few of the other questions have also been blighted
by this same limitation. :-(


And yet another potentially correct answer... "It doesn't matter where
he hangs it if the bar and supports have been adequately engineered".
If it hasn't been, then it all depends on which bit of the system hasn't
been adequately engineered, the bar or the bar supports.

That's exactly the problem, Ambiguity! (and in spades!).

In fact there's so many of these ambiguously posed questions sprinkled
around where the only way the student can provide the (or most) correct
answer is by 'breaking the rules' in regard of indicating which of five
possible answers is the correct *one* that it makes me wonder whether
this (contrary to most examination papers) was designed specifically to
identify budding geniuses (or troublemakers) prepared to stand up and be
counted.

It's almost as if this was some sort of inverse precursor to "The Milgram
Experiment"[1] which was carried out in 1961 at Yale University to
examine the issue of "Obedience" which had been raised at the Nazi war
criminal trials by the defendants' claims that "They were just following
orders."

I guess it's the common factor of the deceitful nature of that
sprinkling of "Trick Questions" embedded in the exam paper that's made me
think of the Milgram Experiment which had relied entirely upon deception
to gain insight into the nature of obedience to authority figures.

In the case of this exam paper, one would prefer to think of it as a way
to identify free thinking geniuses as candidates for further educational
advancement but it could just as easily be a way to deal with potential
trouble makers by denying them access to further education. How the test
results are interpreted depends on the aims of the sponsor who may not
necessarily have taken the question setter entirely into his confidence
[2].

[1] https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html

[2] Perhaps I'm overthinking this. I seem to be in danger of developing a
conspiracy theory. My apologies. If there's one thing the world isn't
running short of, it's conspiracy theories. :-(

--
Johnny B Good