Introductory Chemistry at Duke has been taught for about a zillion
years by Professor Bonk (really), and his course is
semi-affectionately known as "Bonkistry." He has been around forever,
so I wouldn't put it past him to come up with something like this.
Anyway, one year there were these two guys who were taking Chemistry
and who did pretty well on all of the quizzes and the midterms and
labs, etc., such that going into the final they had a solid A. These
two friends were so confident going into the final that the weekend
before finals week (even though the Chem final was on Monday), they
decided to go up to UVirginia and party with some friends up there. So
they did this and had a great time. However, with their hangovers and
everything, they overslept all day Sunday and didn't make it back to
Duke until early Monday morning. Rather than taking the final then,
what they did was to find Professor Bonk after the final and explain
to him why they missed the final. They told him that they went up to
UVa for the weekend, and had planned to come back in time to study,
but that they had a flat tire on the way back and didn't have a spare
and couldn't get help for a long time and so were late getting back to
campus. Bonk thought this over and then agreed that they could make up
the final on the following day. The two guys were elated and relieved.
So, they studied that night and went in the next day at the time that
Bonk had told them. He placed them in separate rooms and handed each
of them a test booklet and told them to begin. They looked at the
first problem, which was something simple about molarity and solutions
and was worth 5 points. "Cool" they thought, "this is going to be
easy." They did that problem and then turned the page. They were
unprepared, however, for what they saw on the next page. It said:
(95 points) Which tire?