<p>Sorry Failboat if you don’t like the question. Philosophical arguments will not get you the answer. The question I posed was is exactly how it was posed to freshmen at MIT in 1974, likely 100% of whom never were responsible for maintaining a car. No numbers whatsoever were provided. However, the numbers and the equations needed were easily determined, like the size of a car’s tire. In real life problems, like you will get in college and beyond, you are not provided with the information, etc. that you need to solve the problem. You are only provided with the problem. You say you do not know the mileage of a tire, yet you say you know the weight of a car. Hmm. You must have an awfully large scale in your garage to “know” the weight of a car. I suppose not, but you found that out some way. In life, one has to learn things on one’s own. Sometimes it’s in a book, sometimes it’s elsewhere. And sometimes one also has to make estimates.</p>
<p>In subsequent courses at MIT that I took, likewise problems were given to students with no numbers and no equations. We were expected to determine what equations, constants and numbers were needed to solve the problem. As a professional engineer, for example, the problem is “build a bridge from A to B that costs X and has 4 lanes”. That’s it. The rest is up to you. You don’t get to say “give me more information”, “give me the right books”. It’s your jod to get that information on your own from research or from thought. The same is true in any profession. You only get the problem and you have to determine what is needed to solve the problem. And such was the problem that I presented to you. So don’t complain, learn.</p>