Author: John Merlino
Date: 16:09:01 02/14/06
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On February 14, 2006 at 16:52:39, h.g.muller wrote: >On February 14, 2006 at 15:26:04, F. Huber wrote: > >>they are not so difficult, that I wouldn´t be much faster without a computer. :) >> >>Franz. > >True, I would not know how to use a computer to my advantage in solving this >problem. Perhaps for an expert in formula-manipulation languages such as >Mathematica... > >I consider myself a pretty adept mathematician, but it still took me 20 minutes >to solve this! Partly because I did not know the formula for the volume of a >ball cap by heart, and had to derive that by integration... Not very difficult, >but very tedious, and you have to keep sharp all the way because a single error >will kill you. > >But a very strange problem for a programming contest! Your last sentence is the biggest issue I had with those four problems. This problem is clearly not a test of programming skill, but of mathematical skill (and an extremely difficult one at that for a typical college Comp Sci major). The zombie problem (as summarized by Derek) is very bizarre. And if its description was 2 pages long as Derek said, then it borders on completely pointless in a 2-hour test. The magic square problem is not difficult at all. The chess problem is fine, I suppose, as long as you know the rules of chess! All in all, I expect this was probably an exercise in sadism for the professors. :-) jm
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