Re: [quizbowl] Re: Sectionals questions

William Paul Meyerson <*meyerson_at_mmailliw.yahoo.invalid*> · Mon, 10 Feb 2003 01:56:54 -0500 (EST)

And one more point,  was the function "x^3 - x"?  I thought they were
saying "x^3, -x, and tangent of x"... (and similarly, the question on
compactness could very easily have had the answer "closed" for a good part
of the question!)  These types of questions actually hurt math people
because those that can think of the multiple answers have to wait until
longer until they know that their answer is right, by which point they may
lose the power or someone else may buzz in

mmaillia

On Mon, 10 Feb 2003, jpahk wrote:

> --- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, jp_lien <no_reply_at_y...> wrote:
> > In the name of balance let me say that the question on surjective
> > mappings was mmm, tasty.
>
> augh. i appreciated the existence of such a question on a theoretical
> level, but the actual question was rather grieviously flawed. it
> began with something like "On the real line, this property applies to
> the functions x cubed minus x and tangent of x, but not to e to the
> x." this lead-in caused an opponent to buzz in and say "oddness,"
> which is a very good answer at this point. (actually he may have
> buzzed before e to the x, but that's irrelevant.) why was x^3-x
> chosen instead of saying "any cubic polynomial" (since all cubics are
> surjective)? it definitely wasn't 100% clear that the answer
> was "oddness" at the point where he buzzed, but the functions chosen
> did have that property in common and it jumped out a little more than
> surjective. certainly it wasn't incorrect, but it was misleading, and
> qualified as a hose nevertheless. i felt bad for my opponent, but
> then they won the match anyway, and i felt worse. :)
>
> Earlier, Steve Kaplan wrote:
> > 5) Patrick Friel was robbed of the Tommy LaSorda bobblehead doll.
>
> tough to say. after the initial round robin, pat was ahead of me in
> P/G and i was ahead of him in P/TU heard. there seems to be no
> consensus across the various SCTs on which metric is used to rank
> individuals. naqt as an organization doesn't seem to care how (or
> even if) individuals are ranked, but they require the use of P/TU
> heard to break ties between teams for ranking purposes.
>
> i think i'm justified in claiming legitimate possession of the doll.
> if pat really wants it badly, he should bid on it when it goes up on
> e-bay next week. :)
>
> joon
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> quizbowl-unsubscribe_at_yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
>