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Old Sun Aug 17, 2008, 09:38am
JugglingReferee JugglingReferee is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Near Dog River (sorta)
Posts: 8,558
Tx to science teachers... and all teachers really

Quote:
Originally Posted by BillyMac
I'm a retired science teacher. BktBallRef's answer to jcref's question reminds me of a "teacher" joke that I used many times over my 30-plus years of teaching:

Student: "Mr. BillyMac. Do you know what time it is?"
Mr. BillyMac: "Yes."

Question asked. Question answered. The lesson: It's important, as part of the scientific method, to to word scientific questions properly.
My grade 10 physics teacher, Mr. Robertson, told us a story about the importance of always including the units in an answer:

(Background: Ontario roads have speed limits measured in kilometres per hour) In his story, he was travelling throughout the Canadian prairies one fine summer. He passed a sign that said "Maximum 80". So he started going 80..... miles per hour.

Naturally, a police car saw this and started the pursuit. When the officer accused Mr. Robertson of speeding, Mr. Robertson pointed out that the sign said 80 and he was doing 80. Because the sign didn't specify the units, the police officer had no reason to ticket him.

While I believed the story to be fake, the lesson of always including the units was clear as day!
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