Does The Answer Make Sense?
Overview
When submitting an answer to a question, the answer should make sense.
This is aimed at all my math classes. Students are often in a rush, and submit answers which are obviously incorrect. I'm not adverse to allowing students to guess an answer for homework or quizzes (I request supporting work for all exams), but the guess should be something reasonable. This is part of the fulfillment of my share of Renton Technical College's OSPI grant 2022.
Does The Answer Make Sense?
When we submit an answer to a question, we must always ask ourselves “Does the answer make sense?”
For example, if we’re asked to find the probability of some event, and we get an answer of 2.5 for the probability, we should be careful to recognize that 2.5 is not a probability value because probabilities take values greater than or equal to zero, and less than or equal to 1 (alternatively 0% to 100%, inclusive).
Another example would be when we get a number which doesn’t make sense in the context of the question. Suppose we’re asked to find someone’s age, and we report the age as 365 years. This is not a reasonable value for an age of a human being at this point in time.
Here’s another example which applies to safety. The drug valium is a benzodiazepine that is used for anxiety, and a typical dose is in the range of 2 to 10 mg two to four times daily. If we get an answer that has 200 mg of valium four times a day, we could be making a lethal error. Always check and recheck when it comes to safety.