/sci/ - Science & Math

take it to the dean


then kill yourself for being a pre-med

2 whole points.

Yeah, uhh, no.

This is big boy school now.
The professors may be wrong, but yes, they can do whatever the fuck they want.
Get over it.

>>2555169
I'm a chemistry major. I don't actually care that much about grades but some of these professors need a good bitchslap to the face. They forget what it's like to be a student, talk down to people every day like they're some god, like they don't shit, piss and fart the same way as everyone else.

welcome to reality

dicks

dicks everywhere

>>2555189
This. I agree OP. It's not about the two points - it's about them not admitting when they're fucking wrong.

I once lost 20% on a test because I used different notation than the prof, and by different notation I mean I used a,b,c instead of u,v,w for vectors

I got my point in the end, but dammit,

I would have done the same thing to you OP.
Learn 2 sigdig

>>2555190
I would think that one of the qualities of being a "big boy" is learning when people are wrong, and telling them they are wrong, regardless of their social standing.

>>2555190
Yea, and if somebody rape you in the ass, you're going to happily take it and "get over it". Don't try to appeal to authority here.

>>2555163
>sig figs

The Ultimate troll

1254 rounds up to 1300 for 2 sigfigs...
but I agree with your point.
my friend has to redo her online physics hw everytime she the wrong form (scientific notation or regular).
feels bad man

believe me, i'm not appealing to authority here, but the reality of the situation is, op, that a tenured (often even untenured professors) are old, outdated fogies that represent the Old Guard (the professional work environment seems the same from my experience), and they seem to dislike, if not hate, almost everyone

So, you pretty much just have to do what they say while you are "working" under them or find a new shcool

>>2555201
Exactly, I didn't act like some rebel and run my mouth to piss them off on purpose.
I just sent them a polite email asking them to clarify, because I knew that if I even ask this guy in person, he would get angry and may be even give me a 0. And because of tenure, they can never be fired.

In my mind, authority and rank means nothing. It doesn't automatically mean respect. You have to earn it. Look at people like Feynman, the guy is humble and self-aware instead of tripping over his own ego.
That's the hallmark of an intelligent person.

>>2555189

your options are

1. cry about it
2. tell the dean the problem
3. take it in the ass

your choice nigger

2 points is nothing. Wait till you get to grad school. The bullshit in unbelievable.

IMO, you're never going to be free of it until you're very rich and powerful. Even then you'll still have to put up with people like him.

>>2555225
I just made up the random numbers after the 2 to indicated that the answer went on a while and I deliberately rounded to the correct sig fig.
It may be 2 points this time, maybe more next time. I've seen other people suffer even worse bullshit by not setting up the problem exactly the way god prefers it, even when their answer is completely right.

Don't go to grad school or you will hang yourself after the first semester.
They will berate you like a stupid child if someone in your lab section accidentally breaks a buret while you're supervising.
Swear to god, I hate my PA. I hope he contracts testicular cancer. There has never been an uglier human being.

>>2555235
The dean is on their side. Best move is to politely question the professor. If he doesn't make any concessions on his end, drop the class and take it with someone else or take the hit and move on. No one in grad school cares about GPA unless you have less than a 3.0. Original research and personal recommendations from professors you work with are what matter.

>>2555250
Wait, it's worse in grad school?

>>2555295
of course dude, what do you expect? graduate students are expected to bend over backwards

>>2555288
Just wondering, does GPA matter when you try to find a job as a lab technican?

>>2555298
Not likely. You'll raise eyebrows if you have an abysmal GPA, but it has to be pretty fucking bad to not get hired as a lab tech.

My Jamaican international politics professor took off for having a correct, but awkward sentence in an essay.

It took me 3 minutes to figure out wtf the essay question was asking because of the shitty, shitty grammar. Run-on sentences, inappropriate periods, and one sentence with no subject or object.

Fucking really?

>>2555295
You obviously haven't researched much about grad school. This kind of issue is an absolute nightmare.

The PA owns you. Some of them even play favorites, giving credits to those that don't deserve. Some steal your work and publish it as their own or withhold your work and refuse to publish that paper you spent a year working on.

You are their bitch.

I would suggest discussing things with the ombudsman rather than the dean.

Although in fairness to your professor I also learned that omitting the decimal implies an exact value. But I learned that from a retarded high school coach/teacher so it may be wrong.

>>2555295
It's worse in some ways and better in others. Overall, I'd say it's better, but there's a reason so many people in the science leave for the work force, and it's not just the money.

>>2555318
A decimal point may be placed after the number; for example "100." indicates specifically that three significant digits are meant.

Myers, R. Thomas; Oldham, Keith B.; Tocci, Salvatore. "2" (Textbook). Chemistry. Austin, Texas: Holt Rinehart Winston. p. 59. ISBN 0-03-052002-9.

Not putting the decimal point means that the zeros are NOT significant.

>>2555316
Oh, I also forgot to mention, using research funds to stay at 5 star hotels while attending conferences, while you sleep outside your lab day and night.

They don't give a fuck. They do not give a fuck. You can roll over and die in their office and they would wipe their shoes on your shirt and spit in your face, then act like an ant just died.

This thread depresses me. It's like:
a.) Enter the private sector and put up with nepotism and business majors.
b.) Enter grad school and put up with favoritism and god complexes.
FUCK

>>2555285
>PA
Personal adviser? Sorry, I'm not familiar with academic terminology.

>>2555353
That's life brah. Now you know why people want money and power. Without it, you will be life's bitch until the day you die.

Some things you can control, like not marrying, getting involved with scums and parasite. Unfortunately, sometimes it's unavoidable, grad school MAY be one of them.

They say that there are two types of PA, the dicks and the losers.

>>2555353
Grad school is not always like that. I happen to be a research assistant for someone who is pretty universally regarded as a kick-ass professor and all around smart/nice guy. I've never experienced anything like >>2555345 is describing, but I certainly don't doubt some professors are like that.

Not OP and slightly off topic, but are significant figures ever used outside of a classroom environment? For something that was such a pain to learn, and seems to go against logic in regards to importance of numbers, I can't think of anything that uses them.

ITT: Fags go to a private uni then cry when it's rife with nepotism

>>2555380
All the time. Seriously.
If you fuck up your sig figs in a paper, people are going to think you're a joke. It's just like a spelling or grammatical error. Would you put "We incuebaeted teh sample at I think it was 100 deg"? What's the point of a measurement if you're not going to state how accurate it is?

Also, sig figs are completely logical. Errors in measurement are compounded when operated on, so the final answer is only as accurate as our most inaccurate measurement.

>>2555288
>No one in grad school cares about GPA unless you have less than a 3.0.

Do you mean to say your GPA as an undergrad, or as a grad student?

>>2555398
As a grad student. It is what you need to stay in any of the programs I have seen.

In scientific papers, one usually states the uncertainty, eg:

5.69 +- 0.24 ml

Sig figs are a good idea for a general rule, but don't take them too seriously. Also, OP, if you got 1254, shouldn't you have written down 1300?