MetaChat - Give the kid an 'A'

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17 January 2007

Give the kid an 'A' for 'amagination'

post by: essexjan at: 14:02 | 17 comments

Is that a spherical elephant of uniform density?

posted by eriko 17 January | 14:11

I love that the teacher circled the elephant and put a question mark next to it.

It's an elephant! Why are you questioning it? Can't you see it's an elephant? And it's in the way! The kid obviously can't answer the question when there is an elephant in the way.

Sigh.

posted by brina 17 January | 14:22

yeah- what's up with the gratuitous elephant circle?

posted by small_ruminant 17 January | 14:23

Damn, the kid got a zero, too? Public schools have really slid downhill. Quick put an elephant in the way of public schooling!

posted by WolfDaddy 17 January | 14:26

Hee hee!

posted by Specklet 17 January | 14:27

I'm putting an elephant in the way of the rest of my workday!

*catches bus home*

(thanks ej, made me smile)

posted by gaspode 17 January | 14:28

Bwa ha ha ha ha....

posted by typewriter 17 January | 14:33

I have to ask, where did you find this? Were there more like it?

posted by youngergirl44 17 January | 14:34

I too would like to see more pictures of this sort.

posted by interrobang 17 January | 15:04

I like this kid.

posted by dabitch 17 January | 15:23

How can you tell an elephant has been in your homework?
(1) by the footprints in the frictionless ramp
(2) there are only 3 in the Volkswagen
(3) the teacher gave you a Zero

posted by wendell 17 January | 15:37

Trivia: Sir Arthur Eddington once gave his Cambridge students an examination question involving "a perfectly spherical elephant, whose mass may be neglected..."

posted by Daniel Charms 17 January | 15:49

I marked an exam a few years ago that a kid had drawn a Godzilla on. I added people, cars and flaming buildings to the picture and gave a half mark for making me smile.

Creativity is always worth at least a half mark IMHO.

posted by LunaticFringe 17 January | 16:25

I marked an exam a few years ago that a kid had drawn a Godzilla on. I added people, cars and flaming buildings to the picture and gave a half mark for making me smile.

Best. Teacher. Ever.

posted by youngergirl44 17 January | 16:40

I like this kid.

I was this kid. Well, nearly. I didn't draw elephants on my tests, but I did "correct" the numbers I had to add or substract sometimes to make the answer nice and round (and easier to calculate; I liked doing things in my head and sometimes, getting the correct answer was just too much work).

posted by Daniel Charms 17 January | 16:56

Eddington also once used the example of an elephant sliding down a grassy hill. I can't help notice the poetic similarity here. Perhaps this kid is smarter than he's letting on?

(In this case, Eddington was making a point about how one makes simplifying assumptions in physics, and thereby removes all the poetry. The elephant becomes a mere mass, the hill becomes an inclined plane, and the grassiness becomes a coefficient of friction. I don't think this was related to the spherical, massless elephant, though, apart from Eddington's evident fondness for the pachyderm.)

posted by chrismear 17 January | 17:10

An elephant on a frictionless ramp is going to fall off pretty damn quick, don't you think?

Is that an elephant on your frictionless ramp, or are you just pachyderm see me?

posted by PlanetKyoto 18 January | 10:23

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