I had a similar thing happen in high school physics. We were were suppose to figure out where and when a projectile was going to land. The only problem was that it was never going to land—-the initial velocity was too high.
In retrospect I think it was a great lesson for my future career as a data engineer. Doesn’t matter what the source is, any datum can be just plain wrong.
> The only problem was that it was never going to land—-the initial velocity was too high.
As in, it escaped the gravitational field?
Yep.
Re:Algorithms, by Jeff Erickson
by daveFNbuck on Wednesday January 02, 2019 @11:29AM
(#18807341)
That professor probably had produced the answer already, using the metric he had initially intended. Having a set of answers doesn't mean you didn't make a mistake in the questions.
But it does clue you into whether the professor used a different set of assumptions than you did.
Re:Algorithms, by Jeff Erickson
by daveFNbuck on Wednesday January 02, 2019 @02:55PM
(#18809529)
Presumably you wouldn't see the answers until after you spent all night on the assignment.
Re:Algorithms, by Jeff Erickson
by specialist on Wednesday January 02, 2019 @05:15PM
(#18810825)
There's a story of a prof injecting one error into every test.
I had a industrial engineering teacher that did something similar. Every team had a (fake money) budget for each project and bought materials from him (sole source). He'd randomly cut corners, to keep everyone on their toes. Good lesson for the real world.
Re:Algorithms, by Jeff Erickson
by skookumchuck on Wednesday January 02, 2019 @06:51PM
(#18811509)
On the other hand, struggling all night to solve an un-solvable problem is a valuable learning experience, too. In the real world we struggle all the time with problems that don't have solutions.
In the end, he was like "Oh my bad," and corrected his mistake. The point of the story is that they were able to essentially ask him for the solution and they were able to check what they'd done, and in the end he made the mistake. In situations like this, he should provide the answer if nothing else to show that he didn't make a mistake in the problem set. People are fallible, no matter how brilliant you are.