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My high-school chemistry teacher had a tradition of announcing "Automatic A" challenges at the start of the term. One challenge was balancing a large chemical e
by markc 11y ago
My high-school chemistry teacher had a tradition of announcing "Automatic A" challenges at the start of the term. One challenge was balancing a large chemical equation. I recall it required solving something like 6 equations with 6 unknowns. I solved it with multiple attempts and many pages of algebra, and crucial hints at sticking points from my dad who had a Masters in Chemistry. Easy A.
Another term, an A was promised for anyone turning in a "print out" of the numbers from 1 to 1 million. Dad, coming to the rescue again, got me access to a Microfilm printer at his work, and taught me just enough FORTRAN to generate the list. (Yeah, short program, all about the formatting.) Another easy A. The teacher's expression was priceless.
- kaik 11y agoDid you enjoy working on those things? The way you write it it seems like you think that it was stupid for a professor to give you an A for such easy things. However I bet you learned a lot.
- markc 11y ago>seems like you think that it was stupid Because I mentioned the expression on his face? I didn't intend to convey that I was laughing at him for that - only that he was (understandably) surprised, and I enjoyed that. I don't think it was stupid. The chemical equation balancing was highly relevant, and I did learn a lot from that. In some sense it was like "testing out" of the class - by mastering a homework challenge that was much harder than any of the class material. The "million" challenge was interesting as well, and I did learn from it, but not about Chemistry. I knew I had the A less than halfway into the term, so I stopped doing chem homework. That was not optimal if the goal was to teach me Chemistry. In that sense, the first challenge was probably better.