Task: divide class of 16 people into 4 groups, making sure that 4 people who haven’t done the assignment are with people who have. Simple: 4 groups of 4, each of which has one of the people who hasn’t done the assignment, right? How about we all just wander around in confusion and end up with 2 groups of 6 or 7 people, and little couples or similar, that makes a lot more sense. The latter was the teacher’s answer to the problem. And they say maths isn’t useful. Grrrr.

 I am taking an evening class on Fridays, and this is roughly what happened. A couple of us pointed out how the teacher could divide us evenly and satisfy the basic requirements, but after she waved her hands about and let everyone figure it out on their own, chaos reigned. Of course everyone figured it out in the end, but for a few minutes I felt like I was in some kind of behavioural science experiment gone awry.