Boston University of Physics "Brainteaser" Demonstrates Narrowly Focused Intelligence In Action

I blogged recently about how our educational system produces people with very narrowly-focused knowledge. Here it is in action.

The brainteaser, "The Monkey and the Hunter," from the Boston University Department of Physics is as follows:

A hunter spies a monkey in a tree, takes aim, and fires. At the moment the bullet leaves the gun the monkey lets go of the tree branch and drops straight down. How should the hunter aim to hit the monkey?

1. Aim directly at the monkey
2. Aim high (over the monkey's head)
3. Aim low (below the monkey) 

The BU Physic's dept. answer, compete with equations, is based on the simple fact that gravity acts on the monkey and the bullet at the same rate, so that if you aim directly at the monkey, by the time the bullet reaches the monkey, the monkey and the bullet will have dropped the same amount. Thus, their answer is 1.

Which happens to be wrong.

What this really shows is that few BU physics students are hunters. Hunters deal with gravity-induced bullet drop every time they shoot. A rifle isn't sighted in along a straight line from the barrel to the target. The rifle is sighted in to account for the bullet drop at a known shooting distance (typically 100 yards). The shooter either manually compensates or adjusts his scope/sights on the fly if the distance is different, but the point is, the hunter's point of aim is already taking gravity's effect on the bullet into account. Unless the hunter knew for a fact back when he sighted in his rifle that he was going to be shooting at falling monkeys, he would not aim directly at the monkey, because that point of aim is already lower than a straight line, to account for bullet drop. He would have to estimate how much the bullet would drop due to gravity and adjust his aim by that much.

Unfortunately, an education in physics at Boston University doesn't equip you with any knowledge about how people deal with gravity in practical applications every day.