Keegan99 said:
Kenneth_2003 said:
Keegan99 said:
Yes, and every sprinter in the Olympic 100m finals has trained with that singular focus as well.
They don't all get gold medals.
That's a silly comparison. Don't see tie's in the 100m dash either. Based on the scoring system currently in use, these kids all tied.
Then develop a scoring system where there are no ties.
Valedictorian is for #1. Salutatorian is for #2.
If the scoring system allows for multiple perfect scores and fails to identify a unique #1 and #2, then it is deficient.
No, it is merely subject to math and logic. The comparison to sprinters is fallacious because sprinting has no perfect time, whereas grading does have a perfect score.
In sprinting, the limit of the absolute perfect time approaches 0, but it cannot physically be 0. Therefore, it is always infinitely divisible and there is no bound on how close you can get to perfect. With the proper equipment, you could continue to calculate sprints to infinitesimally small units of time until you determine a winner.
In academic grading, you
can get a perfect score. It is theoretically possible to score 100/100 on every assignment, so one can reach the limit of a perfect score, not merely approach it. If one can do it, many can do it.
Grading is also measured in discrete units or points, whereas sprinting is measured in ever divisible seconds. Even if two students who tie for valedictorian didn't get perfect scores, they can still easily tie because there is a finite number of scores they can get on assignments and many assignments are based on x right answers/y questions. Even subjective assignments are generally based on point based rubrics, and no teacher is going to hand out an assignment graded to 5 decimals.
That said, the Olympics does measure time to a finite number of decimals, effectively making events measured in discrete units, and sprinters, swimmers, speed skaters, etc
can tie. Perfect example is the 2016 Olympics. Swimming saw three events with ties for gold, silver, and bronze. Those are timed events, just like sprinting.