Barometer question

. The barometer question is an example of an incorrectly designed examination question demonstrating functional fixedness that causes a moral dilemma for the examiner. In its classic form, popularized by American test designer professor Alexander Calandra in the 1960s, the question asked the student to "show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer." The examiner was confident that there was one, and only one, correct answer, which is found by measuring the difference in pressure at the top and bottom of the building and solving for height. Contrary to the examiner's expectations, the student responded with a series of completely different answers. These answers were also correct, yet none of them proved the student's competence in the specific academic field being tested. The barometer question achieved the status of an urban legend; according to an internet meme, the question was asked at the University of Copenhagen and the student was Niels Bohr. The Kaplan, Inc. ACT preparation textbook describes it as an "MIT legend", and an early form is found in a 1958 American humor book. However, Calandra presented the incident as a real-life, first-person experience that occurred during the Sputnik crisis.…

.]] The barometer question is an example of an incorrectly designed examination question demonstrating functional fixedness that causes a moral dilemma for the examiner. In its classic form, popularized by American test designer professor Alexander Calandra in the 1960s, the question asked the student to "show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer." The examiner was confident that there was one, and only one, correct answer, which is found by measuring the difference in pressure at the top and bottom of the building and solving for height. Contrary to the examiner's expectations, the student responded with a series of completely different answers. These answers were also correct, yet none of them proved the student's competence in the specific academic field being tested. The barometer question achieved the status of an urban legend; according to an internet meme, the question was asked at the University of Copenhagen and the student was Niels Bohr. The Kaplan, Inc. ACT preparation textbook describes it as an "MIT legend", and an early form is found in a 1958 American humor book. However, Calandra presented the incident as a real-life, first-person experience that occurred during the Sputnik crisis. Calandra's essay, "Angels on a Pin", was published in 1959¹ in Pride, a magazine of the American College Public Relations Association. It was reprinted in Current Science in 1964, in Saturday Review in 1968 and included in the 1969 edition of Calandra's The Teaching of Elementary Science and Mathematics. Calandra's essay became a subject of academic discussion. It was frequently reprinted since 1970, making its way into books on subjects ranging from teaching, writing skills, workplace counseling and investment in real estate to chemical industry, computer programming and integrated circuit design. By mutual agreement with the student and the examiner, Calandra gave the student another opportunity to answer, warning the student the answer would require demonstrating some knowledge of physics. The student came up with several possible answers, but settled on dropping the barometer from the top of the building, timing its fall, and using the equation of motion d = \tfrac12 {a}t^2 to derive the height. The examiner agreed that this satisfied the requirement and gave the student “almost full credit”. When Calandra asked about the other answers, the student gave the examples: using the proportion between the lengths of the building's shadow and that of the barometer to calculate the building's height from the height of the barometer using the barometer as a measuring rod to mark off its height on the wall while climbing the stairs, then counting the number of marks suspending the barometer from a string to create a pendulum, then using the pendulum to measure the strength of Earth's gravity at the top and bottom of the building, and calculating the height of the building from the difference in the two measurements (see Newton's law of universal gravitation) There were, the student said, many other possible solutions. The student admitted that he knew the expected “conventional” answer, but was fed up with the professor's "teaching him how to think ... rather than teaching him the structure of the subject." ==Footnotes== ==References== Robert G. Allen (2004). Nothing Down for the 2000s: Dynamic New Wealth Strategies in Real Estate. Simon and Schuster. . Louis B. Barnes, Carl Roland Christensen, Abby J. Hansen (1994). Teaching and the case method: text, cases, and readings. Harvard Business Press. . James F. Fixx (1972). Games for the Superintelligent, Doubleday . Walter Grarzer (2004). Eurekas and euphorias: the Oxford book of scientific anecdotes. Oxford University Press. . Kaplan ACT Premier Program 2009. Kaplan, Inc. . Naomi L. Herson (1986), Evaluation for Excellence in Education, in: Evaluation for excellence in education: presentations given at a workshop/seminar. Canadian Education Association. . Jodi O'Meara (2010). Beyond Differentiated Instruction. Corwin Press. . Roy E. Sanders (2005). Chemical process safety: learning from case histories. Gulf Professional Publishing. . Mark P. Silverman (2002). A universe of atoms, an atom in the universe. Springer. . The cited chapter reproduces an earlier publication: Mark P. Silverman (1998). Flying High, Thinking Low? What Every Aeronaut Needs To Know. The Physics Teacher. 1998, vol. 36. pp. 288–293. The solution sought by Calandra's examiner is indexed with (4) in the very end of p. 289. Maryellen Weimer (2002). Learner-centered teaching: five key changes to practice. John Wiley and Sons. . ==See also== Manhole cover question Microsoft interview

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