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Old 08-19-2010, 11:11 AM   #9
QUAZY50
Still Watching My Back
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
First Name: Alex
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Default Re: Must be future engineers...

Quote:
Originally Posted by markem View Post
I like to ask grad students this question:

What is the shortest distance between two points?






You see, the average student immediately goes back to some half remembered statement from a 7th grade teacher but the question that they answer is "What is the shortest distance between any two points?" rather than the one I asked. The answer to the question I asked? Zero.

Sorry I don't want to derail the thread, but I love the OP.

It is as important to understand the question as it is to know the answer.
I must not understand this question then. If the answer is zero then they are the same point, making it one point. I would argue the answer, a straight line, is correct to the question you posed, otherwise there are not two points. (I am an electrical engineer, just out of school, but I got the degree lol.)

Am I wrong?
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