I'll bite: An artist, an engineer and a mathematician were given the task of building a fence to contain a flock of sheep.
The artist took into account the lay of the land and chose an appropriately aesthetically pleasing shape of fence, then painted it beautifully. The engineer counted and measured the sheep, then built a circle of fence to just fit around the flock. The mathematician put one fencepost in the ground and defined the rest of the meadow to be "inside". PS. I've never met a mathematician (PM or AM) who could jump 10 feet! Ben Zimmer Software Developer, Meikle Automation Inc. PhD student, Applied Math, University of Waterloo. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of William Rance Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 11:37 PM To: Info LabVIEW Mailing List Subject: Programming approach Here's one which received some interesting solutions in python and c, wonder if someone would like to do it in Labview. A Pure Mathematician(PM) and an Applied Mathematician(AM) were put in separate rooms and located 20ft from an Apple.They were informed that to reach the apple they had to jump 10ft, followed by another jump of half the distance (5ft) followed by subsequent jumps each of which would be half the distance of preceding jump. The PM quickly calculated that no matter how may jumps he made he could never land at the apple, consequently he did not attempt the jumps. The AM however immediately started jumping, as he calculated that after 5 to 6 jumps he would land close enough to grab the apple. Happy coding to all. Bill
