• The phrase “There is no right answer.” is too wordy and thus open to shaky interpretation.

  • I say “[Correct answer.

    • There is a solution given by authority.
    • An authority guarantees the correctness of the solution.
    • A solution that is useful but not accepted by an authority is not considered to be a correct solution
  • This refers to a situation where the

  • No right answer” is the opposite situation.

    • No one gives me a solution.
    • No one can guarantee the correctness of the solution.
  • In light of this, the phrase “there is no correct answer” can be supplemented with “there is no solution that is guaranteed to be correct by an authority.

  • Schooling tends to have the right answer.

    • Two times four is a circle, four times two is a cross.
    • ‘We haven’t taught fractions and decimals yet, so 2 divided by 3 isn’t 1.5 or 1 and 1/2, it’s 1 too much.’
    • In high school physics, I was told, “You can solve this by setting up a differential equation, but the curriculum says that differential equations are not taught in high school, so don’t put it in your answer sheet.
    • The answer at this time of year is determined by whether it is “right” or not.
      • The standard of correctness is set by the authority.
      • Problems that have no right answer are judged not by whether they are right, but by whether they are useful. For example, for the unanswerable problem of reducing poverty, a good answer is to do what you think is useful and actually obtain useful results.

Related to this is also “There is always a solution to a question that can be arrived at within the test time.


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