Exam matters.

Sometime ago, I received a call from an old colleague of mine. He was a physics professor and was about to give a student a zero for his physics course. However, the student claimed that he deserved a 100 for his course. The 2 of them agreed to bring in another person to decide on the score.

I read the question, "Show how it is possible to determine the height of a building with the aid of a barometer."

The student answered, "Go to the roof of the building and attach the barometer to a very long rope. Lower it until the barometer touches the ground and mark the length of the extended rope. The length of the rope will be the height of the building."

The student presented a strong case for full credit. While the answer was indeed correct, it did not show any evidence of the student's knowledge of physics, which meant that he did not deserve any credit. Still, I agreed to give the student 6 minutes to think of another, more suitable, answer.

In the first 5 minutes, the student doodled on the A4 paper I gave him aimlessly, sketching out atoms, molecules and structures. I asked if he was unable to answer, and he replied curtly that he had many answers, but couldn't decide on the best one. I apologized, and let him continue. In the last minute, he dashed off an answer.

"Take the barometer to the top of the building and drop it to the ground, timing it. Using the formula: H=0.5g*t^2, calculate the height of the building. Of course, this will mean you've just lost a perfectly good barometer."

I smiled at my colleague and asked if he was willing to concede. He nodded and gave the student full credit and left the room.

As the student packed, I recalled that he mentioned that he had more answers, so I asked for them.

He turned around, beaming, and said, "Well, there are many ways to get the height of a building. For example, you could take the barometer during a sunny day and measure the barometer's height, the length of the barometer's shadow, and the building's shadow. Then, using simple proportion, you could calculate the building's height."

"Alright," I replied. "What if it was a cloudy day?"

"Yes, there is a basic method you could use. Climbing up the staircase, I could mark along the sides of the outdoor emergency stairwell all the way to the roof using barometer-sized markings. Then, once at the top, count the number of markings, multiply by the height of the barometer to get the height."

"A very direct method indeed."

"Of course, if you're planning on using a more complex method, you could use my original method, except turning it into a gigantic pendulum. Then, measure the precession and calculate from there the height.

On the same tack, we could use a much smaller pendulum with the barometer as the bob on the ground, and once again on the roof. Using the period, we could calculate the 2 values of gravity, and thus the height."

I nodded at his grasp of physics.

"Of course, you could be boring and orthodox and measure the difference in millibars on the ground and on the roof and convert it into meters or feet.

Finally, the best one, which I couldn't use was to take the barometer to the basement and look for the janitor. Knock on his door, and when he answers, tell him, 'Sir, this is a fine barometer. If you tell me the height of the building, I'll give this barometer to you."

Before he left, I asked for his name, detecting great potential in this creative and intelligent mind.

"My name's Niels Bohr, sir."

This student was Niels Bohr, a Danish physicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922.

Some idiots in your class may be geniuses if they dare to answer creatively, in a way that will leave teachers stumped whether to mark him/her correct or not. Too bad these geniuses are few and far between.

Another one, since I'm bored.

A philosophy professor, for his final class before retirement, used his most difficult essay question for his class's final exam.

It simply reads, "Why?"

The students are given 2 hours to do it, on top of that.

A student at the back of the class looked at the teacher, then scrawls 2 words on his paper, hands it in, then nonchalantly leaves the class. Most of the students snickers at the student's foolhardiness, but continue writing.

A week later, the professor passed back the marked assignments. Most students scored quite well for their rather well-rounded answers, but the foolhardy student got full marks for his essay, which reads "Why not?"

And finally, something all of us should know.

It's the end of a 2 hour paper, and everybody has completed their paper, save for one guy. As the final examiner started packing up, he quickly finishes his essay and packs up. Before the examiner leaves, the student runs up and places his paper on the stack.

"No way. The paper ended 30 minutes ago. You've just failed."

The student stands there for a while, then asks nonchalantly, "Do you know who I am?"

"No. Does that matter?"

The student nods, grabs the stack of papers with his, and throws it into the air powerfully before running off.

Yes, I'm bored, that's why I put up these stories. They're all fake, as can be seen on snopes.com, but they're still awfully good.