Author: Derek Mauro
Date: 17:01:44 02/14/06
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On February 14, 2006 at 19:09:01, John Merlino wrote: >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. When I read the question at home, it took me at least 15 minutes to make sense out of what the question was even asking. The cone and sphere question contained historical information about Archimedes. You don't want to have to sift through that kind of stuff when you are pressed for time. > >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! The rules of chess fully were explained on the question sheet, I just didn't think it was necessary to explain them here :) > >All in all, I expect this was probably an exercise in sadism for the professors. >:-) > >jm I'm actually not a CS or engineering major. I've been told that this was the first time they've had ever held one of these contests. The problems were written by a graduate student, and I really have no idea what he was thinking when he wrote them. It was a lot of fun, but if they ever hold one of these things again, I hope they let someone else write the questions.
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