Comments on: Five Favorites â€” 101Questions [5/26/12]

By: Timon Piccini

Timon Piccini — Wed, 30 May 2012 22:31:32 +0000

@Kelly The real question then is do we want to have our students become “those” people? ;)

By: Kelly Holman

Kelly Holman — Wed, 30 May 2012 18:02:52 +0000

Actually, all along I’ve been thinking about a chihuahua bandana.

If somebody wants to put a bandana on their lab or German shepherd, of course they don’t measure, they just get a standard bandana, fold it in half and tie it on. But if you wanted to put a bandana on your chihuahua, that wouldn’t work — you’d have to make one the right size. You’d either have to guess, or do the math.

And then, what if you want to make a miniature bandana that looks like a standard one, with the usual pattern? You’d have to deal with scaling. And if you want to manufacture these to sell at a pet store, how much fabric, and how much would it cost, and how much would your profit be?

If you think this is unrealistic, you haven’t seen the way some people with tiny dogs act like they’re baby dolls.

By: lesanno

lesanno — Wed, 30 May 2012 14:14:14 +0000

Re: Marshall Thompson’s contribution, I really want to know how the question asked in this format with a more “real”-looking photo compares to the text book instance.

What if it were a picture of an unearthly ginormous dog with a similarly ginormous bandana…

By: Marshall Thompson

Marshall Thompson — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:37:25 +0000

I think snowmen and buckets of water could be interesting.

By: Nora

Nora — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:21:32 +0000

Snowman redesign:

I could see this being a video or slideshow of sorts. In the first photo: a backyard of snow and in the next the snowman made from that yard. Then a larger backyard and it’s snowman. Finally, a third backyard and stop the slideshow there. Save that snowman for the third act.

By: Patrick Brandt

Patrick Brandt — Tue, 29 May 2012 12:03:58 +0000

I like Timon and Alex’s redesign of Snow, Man. I can see how the picture doesn’t exactly emphasize the question that I proposed. From a student’s perspective, many other questions would come to mind first.
I’ll try for a redesign the next time it snows (in 8 months) (if I remember). Aerial view of yard pre-snowman, time-lapse video of me creating snowman or large ball of snow, aerial view of yard post-snowman.
Although, I do like mr. bombastic’s idea of throwing competition into the mix. Could I show my neighbor’s snowman and their yard, and then just show my yard? Would that be enough to say ‘can I make a bigger snowman with just my snow?’

By: mr bombastic

mr bombastic — Tue, 29 May 2012 01:09:41 +0000

It would be much better if it was obvious that you intend to make the largest snowman possible.

Maybe, in the spirit of mean spiritness, you could give a look or gesture indicating disdain for the size of the snowman in your neighbors yard.

Or, maybe put one of those large inflatable snowman in the yard along with video of you rolling the first ball along the perimeter of your yard. Something to indicate you will use all the snow.

By: Alex Doyle

Alex Doyle — Mon, 28 May 2012 21:54:24 +0000

Re: snow, man – I’d quite like to see this as an area and volume of similar shapes problem.

Timon’s scenario is fantastic, I’d have a video of a snowman built from some fraction of the entire lawn’s snow and challenge them to find the volume of a snowman built from all of the snow.

This should negate the need for the thickness of the snow on the lawn… I think. I’ll check this in the morning.

Then all I’ll need is for it to actually snow in the UK.

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Mon, 28 May 2012 16:18:28 +0000

That works for me.

By: Timon Piccini (@MrPicc112)

Timon Piccini (@MrPicc112) — Mon, 28 May 2012 06:40:37 +0000

My proposed redesign of the snow man.

Aerial view video (from roof top or something).

Time lapse of the creation of the snow man.

For ease sake, it may be better to stick with just one giant snowball, but that’s how I envision it.

The more methodical you do the rolling the better (i.e. always rolling on the outside edge towards the centre).