...were asked what 2 times 2 equals
Several professionals were asked the following question: What is 2 x 2 ? Here were the responses.
- A trained mathematician:
"4." - A poorly trained mathematician:
"I don't what the answer is, but I can tell you, an answer exists." - A physicist, after consulting technical references, and setting up the problem on his computer:
"It lies between 3.98 and 4.02." - An engineer, after consulting his slide rule:
"3.99." - A philosopher:
"But what do you mean by 2 x 2 ?" - An accountant, after closing all the doors and windows, in a whisper:
"What do you want the answer to be?" - A computer hacker, after 2 hours of breaking into the NSA super-computer:
"4."