But What's a Henway?

You know, just when I have begun to assume that the standardized state physics tests for New York High Schools are completely devoid of anything artful, crafty, or involving true thinking, comes this charming question, from the January 24, 2008 Regents Physics Exam.

#37   The weight of a chicken egg is most nearly equal to:
(a) 0.001 newton    (b) 0.01 newton    (c) 1 newton    (d) 100 newtons

Hens are funny to me -- almost a sight gag.  But my further, pedagogical appreciation of this question, is that it probes the student's number sense, estimation ability, and back-of-the-envelope thinking, pet topics of mine. More importantly, near and dear to any teacher, it asks the student "Did anything we studied in the last 200 days make enough sense to you that you can connect even the tiniest bit of it to your 'real' life?"

A plain old English analogy of the above question would be: "Does an American quarter weigh 1 ounce, 1 pound, or one ton?". 

Anyway, if you are a nerd, masochist, or just bored, take the test here. Learn more about the titular Henway here.

Comments

[Ed Darrell]

I'd like to see a lot more practical testing. Most students I have are dreadful at map reading because they lack basic, common milk maid knowledge. In which compass direction does the sun rise? When the cowboy rides off into the sunset, which direction is he traveling?

This post of yours tickles a lot.

[Porlock Junior]

As I recall, when Homer and Flanders made their escape from Las Vegas, they were heading into the sunset. Hence, the mysterious Springfield would be west of Vegas. What the good people of Springfield, Oregon, near Eugene, think of this, I don't know. But it does show the importance of practical knowledge.

The Regents question is a nice one. Who knows what an egg weighs? But a little thought will show that it does not weigh most of a pound, nor yet 1/10 ounce, so we've placed the weight within an order of magnitude; and the choices given are mostly separated by 2 orders of magnitude, making the matter easier. (And for a test-psycher, the choice (a) might be eliminated just by being too close to the next one). So, knowing *g* and metric conversions, which you damn well better know, it works out.