<p>My teacher was talking about his high school philosophy exam and it seemed so cool. The teacher put a chair in the middle of the room and told them to prove that the chair wasn't there. He wrote on his paper, "What chair?" and handed it in instantly, everyone thinking he didn't know what to do and would fail. Everyone else in his class wrote huge "proofs" and references from things in class to try and show the chair wasn't there. Everyone failed, he got a 100. Just figured I'd share because I'm SO bored.</p>
<p>That reminds me of a sociology final that my friend's dad once took. It was an essay exam, and the prompt was, "What is bold." This student simply wrote, "This is," and turned in the "essay." He got an A.</p>
<p>^it's funny. everyone either has a friend's dad or dad's friend that did that. <em>rolls eyes</em></p>
<p>i actually expected that to be the original post when before i clicked the link, but it turns out it wwas just the first response. i'm slipping.</p>
<p>This is from a mom, but I actually experienced this (back in the dark ages of 1974). My college philosophy final was "Why?" Many students filled up an entire blue book writing an answer. The others answered "why not?" and "because." Everyone I knew in the class made an A on the final, no matter what they wrote.</p>
<p>over30, my history teacher told me that same story. </p>
<p>"Why not?" He got an A - type thing.</p>
<p>Haha, I would tried to prove the chair didn't exist with a proof. Gorgias (a Greek Sophist) proved that nothing exists, even if something exists we can't think about it, and even if we can think about it we can't communicate it. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>This is an oft-repeated story, but I do not know if it is true.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?</p>
<p>Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:</p>
<p>"First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave.</p>
<p>Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.</p>
<p>With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.</p>
<p>This gives two possibilities:
1) If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.</p>
<p>2) If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over..</p>
<p>So which is it?</p>
<p>If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "...it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having an affair with her, then #2 above cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and will not freeze over."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Maybe it's some sort of "Philosophy 101" standardized test. The professor was Dr. Fever. (And not the one from WKRP.)</p>
<p>Here's another good one:</p>
<p>Introductory Chemistry at Duke has been taught for about a zillion years by Professor Bonk (really), and his course is semi-affectionately known as 'Bonkistry'. He has been around forever, so I wouldn't put it past him to come up with something like this. Anyway, one year there were these two guys who were taking Chemistry and who did pretty well on all of the quizzes and the midterms and labs, etc., such that going into the final, they had a solid A. </p>
<p>These two friends were so confident going into the final that the weekend before finals week (even though the Chem final was on Monday), they decided to go up to UVirginia and party with some friends up there. So they did this and had a great time. However, with their hangovers and everything, they overslept all day Sunday and didn't make it back to Duke until early monday morning. </p>
<p>Rather than taking the final then, what they did was to find Professor Bonk after the final and explain to him why they missed the final. They told him that they went up to UVa 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. Bonk thought this over and then agreed that they could make up the final on the following day. The two guys were elated and relieved. </p>
<p>So, they studied that night and went in the next day at the time that Bonk 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 molarity and solutions 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: </p>
<p>(95 points) Which tire?</p>
<p>^
That story is actually true; Bonk said it happened in the 1960s. It's too bad he doesn't teach intro chem anymore. :(</p>
<p>^ I've actually heard that story. </p>
<p>I don't really remember the school, but I remember hearing it from my teacher in the second grade.</p>