In our Mathematics Investigation, we were given this task: "Re-arrange the 24 cans of beans in three different ways to the one shown [they were all lined up in a row] and give five advantages and disadvantages for each."

Now I humbly ask just what is the point of that?!

It seems like an utterly useless thing to do. They didn't even specify what situation the cans are in, which would give them advantages and disadvantages, and so on. I mean, if you saw a bunch of cans in a line, the adavantages of such a phenomenon would vary wildly depending on the context with which you saw them. Like "Oh, great, those cans are in a line in my cabinet, now I can easily arrange them in order of use-by date!" Or "Noooooooo! The bus is rigged to explode if anything disrupts it's speed, these cans in the middle of the road are going to set off the bo-AAA!"

Where is the logic? How does it aid our learning?

One arrangement could be a pyramid shape. Now, this has some advantages, like

• It looks like an Egyptian Pyramid, which is very Decorative and Historical
• It is an occult symbol of power, which means
• The beans in the cans might sprout into magical beanstalks
• Which means you can climb them (though it'd really mess up the lawn)
• Through these actions you might become considerably rich, and able to donate money to a fund for unimaginative Maths teachers

Now, another arrangement could be a random scattering of cans. This has five disadvantages:

• It resembles my room
• It looks very messy
• the beans get squashed on one side of the can
• You could trip on one and do serious neck/ankle/back damage etc
• the shape they form means "Reveal to me the Shorts of Faith" in ancient runes

I mean, honestly, what kind of open-ended question was that? They were asking for it! After all, what are the advantages of anything? What are the advantages of living in a house made out of cans? What are the disadvantages of failing your maths assignment? And who really cares? Just what is the purpose behind all this?

In response, my English teacher wrote back:

"Does anything have a purpose? (Other than the one we arbitually describe?)"

I rather liked having her as a teacher *grins*