The (almost) important questions in life
During the last couple of days, I was preparing for my Machine Learning final exam and as I read through the lecture slides filled with intricate maths, I was reminded of a couple of my previous interesting encounters with math exams.
Scene 1
Second standard. This is where they taught multiplication, division and unitary method. One day before the maths final exam, I sat with a book filled with multiplication and division questions in front of me. The first two exercises were pretty simple. I got two number, in the first one I multiplied them, in the second I divided them, and voila! thereâs the answer. Easy peasy! đ The third one was tough. It had word problems. The first question read: âIf 5 butter packets cost Rs. 10, how much do 20 butter packets cost?â I read the question a couple of times but couldnât figure out what to multiple and what to divide. âThere are three numbers in thisâŚâ, the little me thought âwhat do I do now?â and as I realized that I canât find my way around this, my mind wandered over to the more important and the more basic question: âWhy does butter exist? If only there was no butter, I wouldnât have to think about this question.â
Scene 2
IIT Guwahati. First semester. MA 101 endsem. This is where they taught limits, series, continuity and all that fancy stuff. I looked at the question paper and pretty soon realized that the questions are well beyond me. Leaving those aside, I again started ruminating over the larger questions of life: âWhy do the invigilators get tea and refreshments in the middle of the examination duties? Arenât the students doing the hard work? The invigilators are just standing there, biding time. I could really use a coffee right now!â By now I was able to comprehend unitary method and tried to figure out the additional cost for the institute to provide refreshments to students. Next day, the solutions were released and as it had to be, unitary method wasnât really useful for those limits. Funnily enough, this thought continued to bother me during some of my other exams as well. I remember thinking about this even during one of my last endsem exams!
Over the next few years, I appeared for many more of such exams and looked for answers to some more soul searching questions like âHow do people decide which seat to occupyâ, âWhat is the best seat to occupyâ and âWhat would be my grade if I donât answer this questionâ. Eventually, and ironically, I graduated with a with a silver medal for the highest CGPA in the mathematics department. Yes, mathematics department, highest CGPA and me â the guy who had troubles with unitary method :P. âWhat changed?â I couldnât help but ponder as I walked down the stage after receiving my degree.
After being reminded of these, I was almost wishing to chance upon something similar during the upcoming final. And I did not disappoint myself. Interestingly, the question that I did think about during the exam was the meta-question of âWhy am I not thinking about something silly this time?â And then I realized that this was silly enough to qualify! đ