Is the Physics Prank Problem a Chaotic, Coupled, and Damped System?

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Underwaterbob
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In university we had a take home exam for a fourth year classical mechanics course. Some classmates made a fake exam with problems involving a sphere suspended by springs in the center of another sphere bouncing down the stairs and some other such incredibly complex stuff not entirely outside of the realm of what we had studied and gave it to another classmate. I guess he tried his best for about an hour before he went to the prof with it.
 
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Wow, that's so mean :frown: :smile:

and I think it can count as academic offense (if that were final exam).
 
Ivan Seeking said:
Very clever! That is funny. How did he react when he realized it was a joke?

He was a very laid back guy, some said narcoleptic judging from his behavior in class. There was minimal outrage. :biggrin:
 
Underwaterbob said:
In university we had a take home exam for a fourth year classical mechanics course. Some classmates made a fake exam with problems involving a sphere suspended by springs in the center of another sphere bouncing down the stairs and some other such incredibly complex stuff not entirely outside of the realm of what we had studied and gave it to another classmate. I guess he tried his best for about an hour before he went to the prof with it.
Interesting problem - definitely nonlinear. Please post it at PF.
 
Underwaterbob said:
I guess he tried his best for about an hour before he went to the prof with it.

He gave up after one (1) hour? That is a good joke.
 
How did they give it to him without arousing suspicion? Doesn't the teacher usually hand out the tests?
If I were the teacher I'd have forced the entire class the take the fake exam.
 
daniel_i_l said:
How did they give it to him without arousing suspicion? Doesn't the teacher usually hand out the tests?
If I were the teacher I'd have forced the entire class the take the fake exam.

OP said it was a take home test. I am assuming that this would make it easier to do.
 
That does sound like an interesting problem. Was it held by 6 springs in an orthogonal configuration or was it more chaotic?
 
This might be useful:
http://siconos.gforge.inria.fr/Examples/EMBouncingBall.html
 
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Does the problem describe a chaotic, coupled and damped system?