Hermit
Archon
Posts: 4289
Reputation: 8.42
Rate Hermit
Prime example of a practically perfect person
 
|
 |
Dating with Dolly
« on: 2002-05-17 07:25:40 » |
 |
This farmer (In New Zealand) of sheep (what else!?) wanted to build a fence around his flock. So, in fairness to his wallet (more likely deference/abdication to his sheila) he commissioned an architect, an engineer and a mathematician to determine the MINIMUM amount of fencing needed to accomplish this task.
The architects responded.
"Easy, compute the mean grazing area of any sheep, multiply this times the average of the historical size of your flocks, then lay out a square equal to this area", smugly said the architect.
He thought he had pre empted all considerations of both the engineer & the mathematician.
The engineer, knowing that the modulus of a circle is the least of any geometric shape, and thinking he was "one upping" the architect, and further, closing the door on the mathematician, loudly added, "Use a circle instead of a square! You will use LESS fencing material to encompass the same area!"
The physicist is next. He creates a circular fence of infinite radius around the sheep, and then draws the fence tight around the herd, declaring, "This will give the smallest circular fence around the herd."
The mathematician smiled.
"Follow me", he simply stated.
Walking outside to the shed, the balded pate of a wiry, but none to frail ubermensch pulled out one roll of fencing material. [Snipping] off but a 2 meter length of this material, he looked at the other three mensches. They met his gaze with that quizzical head tilting consternation of a dog that is confused.
"Errrrrrruh", said the architect in his best impersonation of "Tim-the tool man-Taylor".
The mathemensch (sic) stepped inside of the section of fencing he had [snipped], closed it around himself, and said, "Now, all I have to do is define myself as being outside the fence."
And finally [Hermit's contribution to resolving the frustrations of the
Sheep farmer]:
The knowledge scientist is last. He simply defines a dataset, {fence}, containing all sheep. When the farmer complains that his harem is still wandering around, the knowledge scientist explains that the problem is solved, flames him thoroughly and suggests the farmer discuss implementation details with the project manager (but adds that if it is done properly the sheep will herd themselves).
Original post virus: " Try to imagine the nightmare of working with sets with members not included in U!" - L'Erm, Kirk Steele, 2002-01-25 17:47:55
|
Author
Logged
