29.Passing Trains George Gamow and Marvin Stern
29. Passing Trains George Gamow and Marvin Stern
Content Background Information Synopsis ■Warm-up Activity Text ■Exercise
Content ◼ Background Information ◼ Synopsis ◼ Warm-up Activity ◼ Text ◼ Exercise
Exercise Multiple-choice Questions Translation
Exercise ◼ Multiple-choice Questions ◼ Translation
■Methods of reasoning There are two types of reasoning process, "deductive"and inductive."deductive reasoning begins with a general theory or premise and then seeks to reach a conclusion on the basis of the general information.This process of reasoning is what we call a syllogism.Inductive reasoning starts from a particular experience and proceeds to generalization.The person may start with"All apples I have eaten were sweet,"and induces "Apples are sweet"as"common sense."But the next apple may not be sweet.Inductive reasoning leads to probabilities,not certainties,and needs to be verified by scientific experiments.By using both inductive and deductive reasoning,we can arrive at a general law
◼ Methods of reasoning There are two types of reasoning process, “deductive”and “inductive.” deductive reasoning begins with a general theory or premise and then seeks to reach a conclusion on the basis of the general information. This process of reasoning is what we call a syllogism. Inductive reasoning starts from a particular experience and proceeds to generalization. The person may start with “ All apples I have eaten were sweet,” and induces “Apples are sweet” as “common sense.” But the next apple may not be sweet. Inductive reasoning leads to probabilities, not certainties, and needs to be verified by scientific experiments. By using both inductive and deductive reasoning, we can arrive at a general law
Synopsis The essay is about a mathematical problem concerning probabilities and the reasoning process of how it is solved.The story of a retired railroad engineer who had insomnia is simply a method of making the problem-solving more interesting.There is an example to help make the essay more easily understood. When both you and your friend wanted to watch an exciting football match but had only one ticket,how did you two make the decision on who should go?Maybe you would take a coin and toss it,while asking your friend to guess which side would turn up.When the coin fell on the ground and the side he had guessed turned up,the ticket would belong to him;otherwise, you would get it
Synopsis The essay is about a mathematical problem concerning probabilities and the reasoning process of how it is solved. The story of a retired railroad engineer who had insomnia is simply a method of making the problem-solving more interesting. There is an example to help make the essay more easily understood. When both you and your friend wanted to watch an exciting football match but had only one ticket, how did you two make the decision on who should go? Maybe you would take a coin and toss it, while asking your friend to guess which side would turn up. When the coin fell on the ground and the side he had guessed turned up, the ticket would belong to him;otherwise, you would get it
Why did you two consider it more acceptable to make a decision through a coin toss? Because a coin has two sides,obverse and reverse. If you throw it up,you will expect to see either the obverse or the reverse.The chance that the obverse appears is equal to the chance that the reverse does. Hence,the probability that you make the right guess and get the ticket is the same as the probability for your friend.So both of you admit that your chance are equal
Why did you two consider it more acceptable to make a decision through a coin toss? Because a coin has two sides, obverse and reverse. If you throw it up, you will expect to see either the obverse or the reverse. The chance that the obverse appears is equal to the chance that the reverse does. Hence, the probability that you make the right guess and get the ticket is the same as the probability for your friend. So both of you admit that your chance are equal
1.What puzzled Mr.Johnson?
◼ 1. What puzzled Mr. Johnson?
He was puzzled by the fact that most of the trains he saw at the crossing at night traveled eastward
He was puzzled by the fact that most of the trains he saw at the crossing at night traveled eastward
2.Why did Mr.Johnson want to solve the puzzle?
◼ 2. Why did Mr. Johnson want to solve the puzzle?
Because he was curious about it
Because he was curious about it
