Friday, October 12, 2012

12/31: Students

"Four students from Los Angeles drove up to Santa Barbara for the weekend. UCSB lived up to reputation with the best bars and campus parties. The students had such a wild time, they didn’t leave any time to study for their Monday exam in organic chemistry. They devised a story to tell their professor about how they travelled to UCSB to conduct research and study, but ended up with a flat tire on their way back to LA. They promised to take the test on Tuesday morning, first thing. The professor agreed. After studying all day Monday, the students arrived to class Tuesday fully prepared for their exam.

She placed them in separate rooms and handed each of them an exam (which was out of 100 points) and told them to begin. The first problem was worth five points. It was something simple about free radical formation. Cool, they all thought in their separate rooms, "this is going to be easy."

Each finished the problem and then turned the page. Question 2 (for 95 points): Which tire?"