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Australian Air Force's Recruiting Puzzle Shown To Be Unsolvable
KernelMuncher writes "Australia's Royal Air Force has been left red-faced after a job ad asked applicants to solve a complex math problem that was revealed to be unsolvable. The service posted the puzzle in a bid to attract the country's best minds to its ranks. 'If you have what it takes to be an engineer in the Air Force call the number below,' it read, above a complicated formula which candidates had to crack. But there was a slight difficulty: The problem had typos and ended up not giving potential operatives the correct contact information."
Maybe its a test of character?
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
It's the Kobayashi Maru!
When people pointed out two key typos, the military bosses thanked them and said they were 'exactly the kind of people they are looking for.'
"Eh, sarge, I think this war is a mistake..."
My AP Statistics teacher used to say the best part about advanced math equations is that you can say (and prove!) there isn't an answer.
...and contact us at our secret phone number, we *really* want you.
My guess is they will find good people for less cost than the government program/s.
Several potential recruits complained after getting error messages from the Wolfram web page that reduces integrals.
Your problem may be solved by means of a most ingenious proof I have, which the margin of your ad is too small to contain.
I have to go lie down now, I'm not feeling well.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
You find out that they are mistaken. So, you don't solve it, do a fake solving, or report them that they made a mistake? Considering how they approach to vulnerability reports the last option could get you in prison, while the problem will still have the same mistake.
...for people who can bullshit their way thru impossible circumstances, and are trying to seek out whoever is the most convincing bullshitters.
It was solvable, just the solution wasn't the intended phone number.
... the only winning move is not to play.
You just need a cocky young man that can reprogram the test and then casually win the test while eating an apple.
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Typos in the problem aside, most engineers I know wouldn't have either the inclination or ability solve that kind of problem. The reactions to it would vary from x "I forgot that shit as soon as I graduated".to a full blown "wtf".
And between both my wifes job and my own, we actually know actually quite a lot of engineers.
That is clearly a problem for mathematicians, not engineers.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
[nt]
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
And in particular people that know the limits of their own skill. Dunning-Kruger effect at work. People that know the limits of their own skill get help when faced with something beyond them. People that do not know these limits mess it up.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
WTF does Australia do with its Air Force anyway? They're hopefully not teaching algebra.
Apparently they don't have to teach algebra since they seem to be looking for candidates that already know Algebra and Calculus.
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:-> Maybe they were just trying to facebook comment bait. You know, like those "95% of people get this wrong." posts, lol.
They were looking for someone with enough common sense to not bother solving it and just look up the recruiter's number in the phone book or on the web.
This is what happens when you have engineers attempting calculus without mathematicians around.
Eat sleep die
Its an even bigger issue here known as 457 visas. Even the government knows they are being widely abused however the opposition likes the status quo. Supposedly its only for job types that people are in short supply how ever almost every job you can think of is on the 457 pre approved list.
In Soviet Russia the insensitive clod is YOU!
No wonder I kept getting a Chinese take out joint.
457 is just our H1B, plenty of people want the jobs, even in remote areas, but 457s are cheaper, so they make it artificially hard/unattractive to Australians, then say they cant find people and use 457s.....
Looking at it briefly all of the calculus for this appears to be covered in the NSW Curriculum Maths Extension 1 course, although an average students doing that course would not be required to solve a problem of that length.
Certainly if it is not solvable using what's taught in Maths Extension 1, it is certainly solvable for Maths Extension 2 students. For reference if you are doing a maths or computing degree in Australia most universities require you to have completed at least extension 1 maths (or equivalent in another state) in High School.
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[citation needed]
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IANA Mathematician, but all those big hairy equations just look like code to me. Doesn't "solve" just mean "to compute", i.e., you read the symbols, do what they tell you, wash, rinse, repeat? If I gave someone a function that executed some huge, gnarly block of code and then asked them to tell me what it would return, what would that really tell me? That they know how to read? Third graders know how to read.
And what kind of person, exactly, would such a test attract? Puzzle-solvers, people in love with unnecessarily complex, convoluted algorithms. The kind of people who would write unnecessarily complex, convoluted algorithms.
No thanks. Give me a Feynman any day.
"We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
Heinlein wrote about that in the 40s (SPACE CADET). A logic problem was presented to the candidate who had the opportunity to cheat.
There is nothing wrong with yr Internet. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission - NSA
I have two nephews who fly for the U.S. Air Force. Hope they never need backup from the Aussies!!!
My karma is bad. Don't get too close!!!