121017-2052 EDT
__dan:
I liked zog's idea of getting rye to propose how he would solve the problem.
Zog's approach is the same method as one of my old prof's. On a final test I thought there was a problem with a question. In other words, in this case, I thought there was an inconsistency. All our tests were open book and on the honor system. Thus, the profs usually were not even in the room during tests. Dow, the department head was filling in for our regular prof, A. B. Macnee.
Dow's approach in various meetings, and teaching, was to ask questions to try to make the presenter or student more deeply think about the problem. So if you ask him a question it is likely he would not answer it, but try to get you to think a bit.
In this case Dow simply said that I should, for the answer, explain what I thought was wrong with the question and make a best effort to answer what I thought was the correct question.
An example of one of Dow's teaching methods was a homework question something like the following:
There is a rectangular space, physically defined. At a defined point on one face of the space was an electron beam of some initial velocity perpendicular to said face. On an opposite face is a point and the question is what are the uniform electric and magnetic fields in this space that will cause the electron beam to hit the point of the opposite face.
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