Barometer question
Encyclopedia
The barometer question is an example of an incorrectly designed examination question that causes a moral dilemma
for the examinator. In its classic form, popularized by American test designer professor Alexander Calandra (1911–2006), 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 examinator was confident that there was one, and only one, correct answer. Contrary to the examinator'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". 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 1959 in Pride, a magazine of 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. In the same 1969 Calandra's essay became a subject of an 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.
The examinator and Calandra, who was called to advise on the case, faced a moral dilemma
. According to the format of the exam, a correct answer deserved a full credit. But issuing a full credit would have violated academic standards
by rewarding a student who had not demonstrated competence in the academic field that had been tested (physics
). None of two available options (pass or fail) was morally acceptable.
Calandra asked the student the same question, and received a wealth of different answers including dropping the barometer from the top of the building, timing its fall with a stopwatch, trading the barometer to the building's superintendent in return for the information wanted, creating two small pendulums and measure the variation of g from the ground to the top of the building, creating a pendulum as high as the building and measuring its period, comparing the building's and the barometer's shadows. The student ultimately admitted that he knew the expected "correct" answer but was fed up with the professors "teaching him how to think ... rather than teaching him the structure of the subject".
and recommended it to physics teachers. Silverman called Calandra's story "a delightful essay that I habitually read to my class whenever we study fluids ... the essay is short, hilarious and satisfying (at least to me and my class)."
Financial advisor Robert G. Allen
presented Calandra's essay to illustrate the process and role of creativity
in finance. "Creativity is born when you have problem to solve. And as you can see from this story [Angels on a Pin] there are many ways of solving a problem. Creativity is the art of looking for solutions that are out of the ordinary, different, unorthodox."
O'Meara used the barometer question to illustrate the art of steering students' activities to a desired outcome: "if the question is not aligned [with the desired learning outcome] then the problem becomes an exercise of problem solving for its own value." The teacher can steer the students either through careful design of the questions (this rules out barometer questions), or through guiding the students to the desired choices. In case of the original barometer question, the examinator may explicitly say that the problem has more than one solution, insist on applying the laws of physics, or to give them the "ending point" of the solution: "How did I discover that the building was 410 feet in height with only a barometer?"
Herson used the Calandra account as an illustration of the difference between academic tests and assessment in education. Tests, even the ones designed for reliability and validity, are useful but they are not sufficient in real-world education.
Sanders interpreted Calandra's story as a conflict between perfection and optimal solutions: "We struggle to determine a 'best' answer, when a simple call to Building Superintendent (the resource man) would quickly provide adequate information."
Dilemma
A dilemma |proposition]]") is a problem offering two possibilities, neither of which is practically acceptable. One in this position has been traditionally described as "being on the horns of a dilemma", neither horn being comfortable...
for the examinator. In its classic form, popularized by American test designer professor Alexander Calandra (1911–2006), 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
Barometer
A barometer is a scientific instrument used in meteorology to measure atmospheric pressure. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather...
?" The examinator was confident that there was one, and only one, correct answer. Contrary to the examinator'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
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
; according to an internet meme
Internet meme
The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
, the question was asked at the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
and the student was Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in...
. The Kaplan, Inc.
Kaplan, Inc.
Kaplan, Inc. is a for-profit corporation headquartered in New York City and was founded in 1938 by Stanley Kaplan. Kaplan provides higher education programs, professional training courses, test preparation materials and other services for various levels of education...
ACT preparation textbook describes it as an "MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
legend". However, Calandra presented the incident as a real-life, first-person
First-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...
experience that occurred during the Sputnik crisis
Sputnik crisis
The Sputnik crisis is the name for the American reaction to the success of the Sputnik program. It was a key event during the Cold War that began on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite....
. Calandra's essay, Angels on a Pin, was published in 1959 in Pride, a magazine of American College Public Relations Association
Council for Advancement and Support of Education
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is a nonprofit association of educational institutions. It serves professionals in the field of educational advancement...
. It was reprinted in Current Science
Current Science
Current Science is a scientific journal established in 1932 and published by the Current Science Association along with the Indian Academy of Sciences. According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal's 2009 impact factor of the journal is 0.782.. Professor Padmanabhan Balaram is the current...
in 1964, in Saturday Review in 1968 and included in the 1969 edition of Calandra's The Teaching of Elementary Science and Mathematics. In the same 1969 Calandra's essay became a subject of an 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
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
to chemical industry
Chemical industry
The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, it converts raw materials into more than 70,000 different products.-Products:...
, computer programming
Computer programming
Computer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a...
and integrated circuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
design.
Calandra's account
A colleague of Calandra asked the barometer question to a student, expecting the correct answer: "the height of the building can be estimated in proportion to the difference between the barometer readings at the bottom and at the top of the building". The student provided a different, and also correct answer: "Take the barometer to the top of the building. Attach a long rope to it, lower the barometer to the street, then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of the rope is the height of the building."The examinator and Calandra, who was called to advise on the case, faced a moral dilemma
Dilemma
A dilemma |proposition]]") is a problem offering two possibilities, neither of which is practically acceptable. One in this position has been traditionally described as "being on the horns of a dilemma", neither horn being comfortable...
. According to the format of the exam, a correct answer deserved a full credit. But issuing a full credit would have violated academic standards
Academic standards
Academic standards are the benchmarks of quality and excellence in education such as the rigour of curricula and the difficulty of examinations...
by rewarding a student who had not demonstrated competence in the academic field that had been tested (physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
). None of two available options (pass or fail) was morally acceptable.
Calandra asked the student the same question, and received a wealth of different answers including dropping the barometer from the top of the building, timing its fall with a stopwatch, trading the barometer to the building's superintendent in return for the information wanted, creating two small pendulums and measure the variation of g from the ground to the top of the building, creating a pendulum as high as the building and measuring its period, comparing the building's and the barometer's shadows. The student ultimately admitted that he knew the expected "correct" answer but was fed up with the professors "teaching him how to think ... rather than teaching him the structure of the subject".
Interpretations
Professor of physics Mark Silverman used what he called "The Barometer-Story formula" precisely for explaining the subject of pressurePressure
Pressure is the force per unit area applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure.- Definition :...
and recommended it to physics teachers. Silverman called Calandra's story "a delightful essay that I habitually read to my class whenever we study fluids ... the essay is short, hilarious and satisfying (at least to me and my class)."
Financial advisor Robert G. Allen
Robert G. Allen (author)
Robert G. Allen is a Canadian-American businessman, financial writer, real estate investor, and motivational speaker.Allen was raised as a member of the LDS Church and lived in Tahiti as a missionary for two years...
presented Calandra's essay to illustrate the process and role of creativity
Creativity
Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...
in finance. "Creativity is born when you have problem to solve. And as you can see from this story [Angels on a Pin] there are many ways of solving a problem. Creativity is the art of looking for solutions that are out of the ordinary, different, unorthodox."
O'Meara used the barometer question to illustrate the art of steering students' activities to a desired outcome: "if the question is not aligned [with the desired learning outcome] then the problem becomes an exercise of problem solving for its own value." The teacher can steer the students either through careful design of the questions (this rules out barometer questions), or through guiding the students to the desired choices. In case of the original barometer question, the examinator may explicitly say that the problem has more than one solution, insist on applying the laws of physics, or to give them the "ending point" of the solution: "How did I discover that the building was 410 feet in height with only a barometer?"
Herson used the Calandra account as an illustration of the difference between academic tests and assessment in education. Tests, even the ones designed for reliability and validity, are useful but they are not sufficient in real-world education.
Sanders interpreted Calandra's story as a conflict between perfection and optimal solutions: "We struggle to determine a 'best' answer, when a simple call to Building Superintendent (the resource man) would quickly provide adequate information."