This past fall semester, at Duke University, there were two
sophomores who were taking Organic Chemistry and who
did pretty well on all of the quizzes and the midterms and
labs, etc., such that going into the final they had a solid A.
These two friends were so confident going into the final that
the weekend before finals week, even though the Chem
final was on Monday, they decided to go up to University of
Virginia and party with some friends up there.
So they did this and had a great time. However, with their
hangovers and everything, they overslept all day Sunday
and didn't make it back to Duke until early Monday
morning. Rather than taking the final then, what they did
was to find Professor Aldric after the final and explain to
him why they missed the final.
They told him that they went up to UV for the weekend, and
had planned to come back in time to study, but that they
had a flat tire on the way back and didn't have a spare and
couldn't get help for a long time and so were late getting
back to campus.
Aldric thought this over and then agreed that they could
make up the final on the following day. The two guys were
elated and relieved.
So, they studied that night and went in the next day at the
time that Aldric had told them. He placed them in
SEPARATE rooms and handed each of them a test booklet
and told them to begin.
They looked at the first problem, which was something
simple about free radical formation and was worth 5 points.
"Cool" they thought, "this is going to be easy." They did
that problem and then turned the page.
They were unprepared, however, for what they saw on the
next page. It said:
(95 points) Which tire?