From: David Wolfe <wolfe@gustavus.edu> Subject: Re: [math-fun] Error in Scientific American math puzzle.
This brings up a point that has always troubled me a bit.
It's challenging to state all of the assumptions required to solve artificial "real-world" word problems. But in my view, stating these assumptions should be left to the problem solver, and not the problem poser.
That reminds me of Marilyn vos Savant and the Monty Hall Problem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem#The_General_Case In general there are situations where the common intuition is "proven" to be wrong by faulty logic. In this case the poser becomes the solver and I suppose that means David's preference applies to them too, but I find it particularly bad when the poser is in a position of authority or teacherhood with respect to an audience some of whom aren't prepared for this kind of abuse. --Steve ( First time posting to this list. What led me here was talking to Gosper about integer rotation transformations: http://www.tiac.net/~sw/chrono.html#2005.03 )