--- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, jpahk <no_reply_at_y...> wrote: [surjective mappings] > 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. :) This question was definitely flawed and the suggested wording, "any cubic polynomial," would have been better. To split a hair, NAQT does not categorize this flaw as "misleading," but rather as "unacceptably ambiguous" and therefore unprotestable. That said, it should not have made it through editing and playtesting and NAQT apologizes for the mistake. -- R. Robert Hentzel President and Chief Technical Officer, National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC
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