One gets delightful lecturers such as he/she who penned this question.
Likewise I shall be interested to see the range of attempts ...
In more boring engineer-speak, the problem would have been presented along the lines of a 3D (2D would be a bit too easy for an honours year task) design drafting exercise with a requirement to minimise the component material used.... is not the 747 tale far more interesting ?
For the exam/tute question, not something to be answered in two minutes ....
A similar one from a charming Fluid Mechanics lecturer in the dim past was along the lines of (and this related to the Faculty building which, subsequently, was cast out from within the tender care of Engineering ..... to the barbarian Humanities hordes ... )
The tealady prepares iced coffee on the ground floor without stirring and permits the cups to sit in the fridge until the liquid is still. Three weeks later she carries the cups up the spiral staircase to the third floor for distribution to the clamouring hordes. Ought she to stir the coffee
(a) before she climbs the stairs,
(b) after, or
(c) not bother ?
This was a final exam question and generated some lengthy and involved dissertations ....
He came up with a number of similar fascinating items ... and his lectures were an absolute delight .....
On a more serious note, this style of instructor (and the consideration transfers very well to flight instruction) usually is far more successful in getting the story across than the stuffed shirt/boring/pedantic/know-it-all/incompetent/etc (pick one or more) types who lose the intelligent student after 2.34 microseconds ....
Last edited by john_tullamarine; 25th November 2002 at 23:51.