At Duke University, there were four sophomores taking Organic Chemistry. They were doing so well on all the quizzes, midterms and labs, that each had an A so far for the semester. These four friends were so confident that the weekend before finals, they decided to go up to the University of Virginia and party with some friends there, figuring they'd have half of Sunday to study.

They had a great time, but after all the hearty partying, they slept all day Sunday and didn't make it back to Duke until early Monday morning. Rather than taking the final totally unprepared, they decided to find their professor after the final and explain to him why they missed it. They explained that they had gone to UVA for the weekend with the plan to come back in time to study, but unfortunately, they had a flat tire on the way back, didn't have a spare, and couldn't get help for a long time. As a result, they missed the final. The professor thought it over and agreed they could make up the final the following day. The guys were elated and relieved. They studied that night and went in the next day at the time the professor had told them. He placed them in four separate rooms and handed each of them a test book and told them to begin. They looked at the first problem, worth 5 of the grade. It was something reasonably straightforward about free radical formation. All at the same time, each one in his separate room thought, "This is going to be easy." Each finished the lengthy problem and then turned the page.

On the next page was the only other exam question, worth 95: Which tire?