*** The Test ***
This past fall semester">
*** The Test *** This past fall semester, at Duke
University, there were two sophomores who were taking Organic Chemistry and who did pretty
well on all of the quizzes and the midterms and labs, etc., such that going into the final
they each had a solid A. These two friends were so
confident going into the final that the weekend before finals week (even though the
Chemistry final was on Monday), they decided to go up to University of Virginia (UV) and
party with some friends up there. So they did this and had a great
time. However, with their hangovers and everything, they slept all day Sunday and didn't
make it back to Duke until early Monday morning. Rather than taking the final
then, what they did was to find Professor Aldric after the final and explain to him why
they missed the final. They told him that they went up
to UV for the weekend, and had planned to come back in time to study, but that they had a
flat tire on the way back and didn't have a spare and couldn't get help for a long time
and so were late getting back to campus. The Professor thought this over
and then agreed that they could makeup the final on the following day. The two guys were
elated and relieved. So, they studied that night and went in the next day at the time that
Professor Aldric had told them. He placed them in separate rooms and handed each of them a
test booklet and told them to begin. They looked at the first
problem, which was something simple about free radical formation and was worth 5 points.
"Cool" they thought, "this is going to be easy." They did that problem
and then turned the page. They were unprepared, however, for what they saw on the next
page. It said: (95 points) Which tire?