9/29/04

A student writes:

     Dr. Patt,
     I was reading through the answers to the recent problem set, and came
     across something interesting. In the last problem of problem set 3,
     if says "0 to 99 for EACH team," yet in the solution, they only use
     100 once. If you have 0-99 for each time, wouldn't it be 100*100? 

Nope.

     If not, why not?

One would think the number of scores would certainly be closer to 100*100 than 100. However, you must remember that the TA who provided the solution is a diehard Longhorn fan, and thinks our strong defense will keep Oklahoma to 0 points.

Still, you would think he would have said 98, rather than 100, but you would have to know a little something about football to be able to know that. And, one of my non-Texan TAs mentioned that we never listed "awareness of football" as a pre-req for EE306.

If he would stop using that stuff, he might have come up with (99*98)/2.

So, I guess the correct answer for football fans should be (99*98)/2 scores, for diehard Longhorns who choose to play that card, 98 scores, and for the football-challenged, 100*100 scores.

OK?

Yale Patt

     Thanks!
     << name withheld to protect the one who got close to the answer >>