In class the other day, the issue of ambiguity arose in regards the way that questions are worded… specifically questions 8, 9, and 10 of ER Exercise #3 (see agenda for 9/30/04 class) . In looking at question 8, is there a foolproof way to look at the structure of the wording in order to figure out whether to start at professor and trace down or to start at college and trace up? The diagram totally contradicts itself.
Tracing downwards from professor says that a professor must have at least one position and that one position has to be in at least one department. Likewise, the department has to be within one college. Using this logic, if you have a professor, the professor must belong to a college.
However, if you trace upwards through the diagram starting college, it shows that a college doesn’t necessarily have to have a department. In other words, the college can exist without departments, positions, and professors.
So we are left with the following: professors must belong to colleges but colleges don’t necessarily need professors.
In completing this, I began to wonder if the underlying issue was really existence… and whether or not knowing which one existed first clarifies which way to go through the chart? Or, is this question just hopeless in terms of finding one right answer?
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