Re: need help on this problem.
- From: "Rhino" <no.offline.contact.please@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 10:15:37 -0500
<Edward.Huerta@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1134052619.953214.135090@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Hello,
>
> I have an assignment for school. I'm looking for help and advise on how
> to solve this. My professor is bad, meaning that she
> can't explain correctly, her english is bad, and it's one of those
> people that expect students to know everything.
>
> well, this is the problem:
>
> On a floor, parallel lines separated of a length L are drawn. When you
> launch a pen of length L on this floor, the probability that it crosses
> a line is 2/Pi. Suppose that you have a computer that has 64
> processors. Write a program to compute Pi in java for that computer.
> But run it on your computer.
>
> I went to her to explain me certain things I didn't understand. For
> example, the lines are drawn parallel like this:
>
> | | | | | |
> | | | | | |
> | | | | | |
> | | | | | |
> | | | | | |
> | | | | | |
>
> and L is the distance between each line. The pen's width (not the
> length like she wrote it) is L as well. For the rest, the pen is thrown
> at random. So for example, the pen can fall diagonally or vertically or
> horizontally.
>
> Does anyone else understand this problem? I don't, that's why I'm
> asking for help from anyone that might have a clue. Even after I
> visited her her
> explainations are bad and don't help at all. I was hoping that someone
> can help me guess what I need to do, since I have no clue. I already
> spent 2 days on this and I can't come up with anything. I appreciate
> anyone reading this.
>
> Thanks.
>
> p.s. and please, i'm not looking for solutions, so please don't start
> b.s.ing or bashing the post.
>
I'd say you're in a very awkward position. I truly don't understand what
your prof wants from this description but that's not surprising since you
obviously don't either. I'm particularly baffled by how pens thrown over
lines on the floor have anything to do with calculating pi on a computer
with 64 processors. Perhaps she is using some kind of metaphor to illustrate
the algorithm you'll need but it isn't one I've ever seen before.
The main issue seems to that she isn't able to state the problem clearly due
to difficulties with English. It simply isn't fair of her to expect you to
solve the problem if she can't explain it clearly. I'm tempted to question
the wisdom of hiring someone to teach when they can't speak the student's
language clearly but I remember my own university days when profs who were
not terribly fluent at English were not unusual.
A variety of possible strategies come to mind:
1. Go to her again and make her explain the problem again. Explain to her
very politely that you are having trouble understanding her due to her
accent but that you really want to understand. See if she can go over it all
again, as slowly and carefully as possible. Ask her to draw diagrams or do
real life simulations of the problem so that you can understand what she
wants. (For example, put some actual lines on the floor and throw pens over
them and get her to explain how this gives the value of pi.) If this doesn't
clarify things, see if either you or she can find a third party to
translate. Maybe one of your fellow students or another prof is fluent in
her language and can get it explained in the prof's native language, then
translate it for you.
2. Consult with your fellow students and see if any of them understand what
is required. If any of them expresses very high confidence that they
understand the problem, get them to explain it to you. (It might be a good
idea to then go to the prof to verify that this is the correct explanation
of the problem. Your confident friend may simply be mistaken.)
3. If the first two strategies don't pay off and everyone is just as
confused as ever, you should probably go to the prof and say that you and
everyone else in the class are completely baffled. It might be helpful to
bring a cross-section of the class with you so that she understands it is
not just you who are struggling. Ask her if she can give a different problem
that is more comprehensible. Make it very clear that you are not trying to
defy her or get an easier assignment and that you are willing to tackle the
original problem if she can possibly clarify it.
4. If you still can't get anywhere, see her supervisor - the department
head? - and explain the problem to the supervisor. Again, make it clear that
you genuinely want to do the assignment, you just don't understand what it
is.
In my opinion, the key here is to give everyone involved, especially the
prof, the benefit of the doubt. She's probably very smart and is probably
doing her best to give you a challenging assignment that will teach you a
lot about programming. She's probably as frustrated by her deficiencies in
English as you are.
She may also have overestimated the backgrounds of her students and may need
a bit of a reality check. If she is new to your country and not familiar
with the educational system there, she may think students have more
experience than you actually do. We all make bad assumptions sometimes and
she may have done that in this case.
Rhino
.
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- From: Edward . Huerta
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