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2025-04-28 23:46:57 +0200 | <davean> | It wasn't actually a short list |
2025-04-28 23:46:48 +0200 | merijn | (~merijn@host-vr.cgnat-g.v4.dfn.nl) (Ping timeout: 252 seconds) |
2025-04-28 23:46:46 +0200 | <davean> | I should dig that up |
2025-04-28 23:46:43 +0200 | <davean> | I once had a list of "Hard problems solved by accident people someone thought it should be easy" |
2025-04-28 23:46:28 +0200 | <darkling> | Hehe. I hope not. |
2025-04-28 23:46:02 +0200 | <davean> | darkling: Or it was and the prof just assumed it was wrong ;) |
2025-04-28 23:45:52 +0200 | <int-e> | yet |
2025-04-28 23:45:27 +0200 | <darkling> | Yeah. The Riemann Hypothesis hasn't been one of those yet, though. :) |
2025-04-28 23:45:24 +0200 | <EvanR> | strategy |
2025-04-28 23:45:22 +0200 | <EvanR> | didn't know the question was supposed to be hard |
2025-04-28 23:45:18 +0200 | LainIwakura | (~LainIwaku@user/LainIwakura) (Ping timeout: 240 seconds) |
2025-04-28 23:44:57 +0200 | <davean> | There have been several cases of long standing math problems solved because undergrads thought they were supposed to be ab le to sovle it |
2025-04-28 23:44:50 +0200 | <darkling> | They weren't even marked, let alone credit-worthy. But several of that lecturer's questions qould lead to the follow-on question, "would you like a PhD?" |
2025-04-28 23:44:32 +0200 | <davean> | wouldn't be rthe first time a long standing math problem was solved by dint of being put on a college exam |
2025-04-28 23:44:16 +0200 | prdak | (~Thunderbi@user/prdak) prdak |
2025-04-28 23:44:01 +0200 | <davean> | darkling: eh there is partial credit for coming up with interesting intermediate results |
2025-04-28 23:43:17 +0200 | <darkling> | davean: We'd get problem sheets like that from our lecturers. One of the questions, once, was, literally, "prove the Riemann Hypothesis". Lecturer taking a hopeful punt... :) |
2025-04-28 23:42:17 +0200 | <darkling> | or, slightly less offensive, but still missing the point, "I spent a lot of time on it!" |
2025-04-28 23:42:09 +0200 | <davean> | My favorit exams where "Here are three things, you have a week to prove them" |
2025-04-28 23:41:49 +0200 | <darkling> | "I showed up! I should get marks for that!" |
2025-04-28 23:41:44 +0200 | merijn | (~merijn@host-vr.cgnat-g.v4.dfn.nl) merijn |
2025-04-28 23:41:11 +0200 | <davean> | They're not even given connectives |
2025-04-28 23:41:08 +0200 | <monochrom> | I don't know. I guess if one has an entitlement attitude then one understands how this is unfair. |
2025-04-28 23:41:02 +0200 | <davean> | Those are statements, where is the logic though? |
2025-04-28 23:40:27 +0200 | <monochrom> | "Every question requires thinking. There are very little free marks. This is unfair." |
2025-04-28 23:39:15 +0200 | <int-e> | davean: it's easy if you don't think about it? :) |
2025-04-28 23:39:07 +0200 | <davean> | It would seem one based on memorization one might have an argument on because one could just look up facts. |
2025-04-28 23:38:40 +0200 | <davean> | monochrom: How does one complain they were deprived by an exam requiring thinking? |
2025-04-28 23:38:22 +0200 | gorignak | (~gorignak@user/gorignak) gorignak |
2025-04-28 23:36:29 +0200 | <darkling> | (They changed it all two years before I was born, but the coins were still in circulation). |
2025-04-28 23:35:54 +0200 | <darkling> | I remember using "5p" and "10p" coins that were marked "1 shilling" and "2 shillings". |
2025-04-28 23:34:57 +0200 | <darkling> | The pund remained the same. The shilling (12 old pence, 5 new) and two shilling coins were kept. Everything under a shilling was dropped, and a new coin (50p) minted for the 10 shilling point. |
2025-04-28 23:33:49 +0200 | <monochrom> | I say that because a lot of students are complaining that I am depriving them of their rightful marks because my exam required thinking. |
2025-04-28 23:32:51 +0200 | <EvanR> | ooooooo |
2025-04-28 23:32:25 +0200 | <monochrom> | A lot of people must have complaint that their rightful wealth were literally decimated. >:) |
2025-04-28 23:31:43 +0200 | <darkling> | (There's an entire plot thread in a couple of Trollope's books about that, 120 years before they actually did it). |
2025-04-28 23:31:43 +0200 | <EvanR> | use unary floating point |
2025-04-28 23:31:07 +0200 | merijn | (~merijn@host-vr.cgnat-g.v4.dfn.nl) (Ping timeout: 265 seconds) |
2025-04-28 23:30:56 +0200 | <darkling> | For extra fun, consider pre-decimalisation British coinage (240 pence / pound; fractions down to 1/4p, so 960 farthings to the pound)... and then the transition to decimalised currency. :) |
2025-04-28 23:27:53 +0200 | <monochrom> | I don't know. But I start with: How do I express one half in unary? |
2025-04-28 23:27:02 +0200 | <davean> | monochrom: wouldn't unary be better? |
2025-04-28 23:26:11 +0200 | <c_wraith> | I suppose given that context, USD uses 1000ths of a dollar in order to make a ha'penny an actual value they can issue. |
2025-04-28 23:25:28 +0200 | tromp | (~textual@2001:1c00:3487:1b00:b5bd:9efd:97f5:64ad) (Quit: My iMac has gone to sleep. ZZZzzz…) |
2025-04-28 23:25:25 +0200 | justsomeguy | (~justsomeg@user/justsomeguy) justsomeguy |
2025-04-28 23:23:40 +0200 | merijn | (~merijn@host-vr.cgnat-g.v4.dfn.nl) merijn |
2025-04-28 23:23:21 +0200 | <monochrom> | (I don't mean the law were written in the 17th century. But the law just codifies a long tradition that began back then.) |
2025-04-28 23:22:08 +0200 | <monochrom> | s/written is/written into/ |
2025-04-28 23:21:53 +0200 | <monochrom> | The financial sector uses base 10 for fractions, and it is written is the law and too late to change. (You need to go back to say the 17th century to change it.) However, for all other purposes, Knuth proved that rounding errors are less bad iff the base is smaller, therefore base 2 is the least bad. |
2025-04-28 23:20:24 +0200 | <haskellbridge> | <Liamzee> https://hackage-content.haskell.org/package/inline-python-0.1.1.1 |
2025-04-28 23:18:48 +0200 | <EvanR> | inline python it is |