For+Fun

Four friends have been doing really well in their calculus class: they have been getting top grades for their homework and on the midterm. So, when it's time for the final, they decide not to study on the weekend before, but to drive to another friend's birthday party in another city - even though the exam is scheduled for Monday morning. As it happens, they drink too much at the party, and on Monday morning, they are all hung over and oversleep. When they finally arrive on campus, the exam is already over. They go to the professor's office and offer him an explanation: "We went to our friend's birthday party, and when we were driving back home very early on Monday morning, we suddenly had a flat tire. We had no spare one, and since we were driving on backroads, it took hours until we got help." The professor nods sympathetically and says: "I see that it was not your fault. I will allow you to make up for the missed exam tomorrow morning." When they arrive early on Tuesday morning, the students are put by the professor in a large lecture hall and are seated so far apart from each other that, even if they tried, they had no chance to cheat. The exam booklets are already in place, and confidently, the students start writing. The first question - five points out of one hundred - is a simple exercise in integration, and all four finish it within ten minutes. When the first of them has completed the problem, he turns over the page of the exam booklet and reads on the next one:

Problem 2 (95 points out of 100): Which tire went flat?

Ten Commandments for Mathematics
(King James Version) 1. Thou shalt read Thy problem. 2. Whatsoever Thou doest to one side of ye equation, Do ye also to the other. 3. Thou must use Thy "Common Sense", else Thou wilt have flagpoles 9,000 metres in height, yea ... even fathers younger than sons. 4. Thou shalt ignore the teachings of false prophets to do work in Thy head. 5. When Thou knowest not, Thou shalt look it up, and if Thy search still elude Thee, Then Thou shalt ask the all-knowing teacher. 6. Thou shalt master each step before putting Thy heavy foot down on the next. 7. Thy correct answer does not prove that Thou hast worked Thy problem correctly. This argument convincest none, least of all, Thy teacher. 8. Thou shalt first see that Thou hast copied Thy problem correctly before bearing false witness that the answer book lieth. 9. Thou shalt look back even unto Thy youth and remember Thy arithmetic. 10. Thou shalt learn, speak, write, and listen correctly in the language of mathematics, and verily A's and B's shall follow Thee even unto graduation.

[|Mathematical genius] [|Smiley face maths]