A Call For Humor!

[mhardy6647]

Your chances of randomly getting any 1 of 4 are 25% and there are two at 25% so right answer is B.

Well, I'd agree, except, if you randomly choose, your chance of randomly choosing B (the 'right answer') is one in four or 25%.
So, I guess there could be three answers that could be considered correct... but, then, of course, your choice of randomly choosing the right answer is 3 in 4, which is 75%, which isn't one of the choices.
But, of course in that case, the chances of randomly choosing the correct answer is zero, but that's not one of the choices, either.

 

[Ken Tajalli]

Well, I'd agree, except, if you randomly choose, your chance of randomly choosing B (the 'right answer') is one in four or 25%.
So, I guess there could be three answers that could be considered correct... but, then, of course, your choice of randomly choosing the right answer is 3 in 4, which is 75%, which isn't one of the choices.
But, of course in that case, the chances of randomly choosing the correct answer is zero, but that's not one of the choices, either.

Well there are three choices, but they are not equal.
If you pick 25% chances are 50%.
If you pick 50% chances are 33%.
If you pick 60% chances are 33%.
The average probability is 39%, the closest answer is B which is 50%.
Unless you assume the answer you might pick is in the form of alphabets! i.e. A or B or C or D - in which case either A or D can be correct.
Imagine it is a dart board with four sections and you throw your darts at random.

 

[mhardy6647]

I think you're under-thinking this.

 

[Ken Tajalli]

I think you're under-thinking this.

I am all ears!

 

[LTig]

Well, I'd agree, except, if you randomly choose, your chance of randomly choosing B (the 'right answer') is one in four or 25%.
So, I guess there could be three answers that could be considered correct... but, then, of course, your choice of randomly choosing the right answer is 3 in 4, which is 75%, which isn't one of the choices.
But, of course in that case, the chances of randomly choosing the correct answer is zero, but that's not one of the choices, either.

Zero chance for a correct answer must not be one of the 4 choices, hence its the correct answer.

 

[LTig]

Etymologically speaking, the answer is 50%. Permit me to explain why I say this.

In the first place, this is a "liar's conundrum", or "liar's paradox". It's simply a trap of circular reasoning. If you take it literally, there is no escape. But to take it literally, you must make an assumption, and that assumption is unwarranted.
Liar's paradoxes are concerned with language, not data. Therein lies the answer. The word used in the question is "chance", and the qualifying outcome is "correct". This forms our field of possibilities: two. One possibility is an answer that is correct, the other possibility is an answer that is incorrect.

If the word used in the question was "probability" rather than "chance", then the paradox would refer to the list. It would therefore be mathematical, and it would be unsolvable.

Gotta love etymology!

Jim

As a non native english speaker I don't see a difference between probability and chance. But I think seeing the question mathematical the correct answer is zero percent chance/probability because it is not one of the 4 choices which are all wrong.

 

[Prana Ferox]

Have I mentioned that I truly despise Monty Hall

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

 

[CedarX]

I am all ears!

I believe it has been called “the multiple choice paradox” and there is no answer… The key element is the use of self-references that are arranged to make an impossible problem—whatever option you pick ends up contradicting some other part of the problem.

 

[CedarX]

View attachment 256173

Another type… but none of the answers are correct

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

Another type… but none of the answers are correct

At least there is a correct answer though (even if it’s none of the options given)

 

[CedarX]

Cut two circles, one with a 2" radius, and one with a 6" radius. Mark each circle with a dot on the circumference. Start with both dots touching, and then carefully roll the smaller around the larger, noting the point at which the dot on the smaller circle touches the circumference of the larger circle. Tell me how many times the smaller rolls around the larger before it aligns its dot with the original dot on the larger circle.

Hint: DO NOT write anything inside the smaller circle.

Jim

p.s. - I just did it with two cans.

That’s equivalent to measuring the revolutions of the small circle relative to a referential that also rotates around the large circle. But if you define one revolution as going from say 12 o’clock to 12 o’clock (fixed referential), it takes 4 revolutions (not 3..) to be back in the same position.
Interesting & debatable, sure… Funny not so much!

 

[Martin]

View attachment 256173

Easy.

Large circle circumference is 2πr. Small circle circumference is 2πr/3. So the answer is (b) 3.

 

[mhardy6647]

Zero chance for a correct answer must not be one of the 4 choices, hence its the correct answer.

I like your thinking!

 

[mhardy6647]

Have I mentioned that I truly despise Monty Hall

I was oh-so-tempted to drag him into this, too!
I quite liked that show as a kid... although I think I like George Carlin's spoof of it perhaps even better.

 

[mhardy6647]

p.s. - I just did it with two cans. The correct answer is there.

I read too quickly and thought you said "with two cars". That sounded really interesting to me.

 

[mhardy6647]

The integral of 1/cabin d(cabin).
Now that's funny maths.

In my line of work, pretty much all we've got is stuff like this...

 

[Blumlein 88]

View attachment 256173

I seriously doubt the truth of this that only three students gave the right answer.

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

I seriously doubt the truth of this that only three students gave the right answer.

Perhaps only three students had the courage to say that all the provided solutions were incorrect (But who knows?)

 

[Blumlein 88]

Perhaps only three students had the courage to say that all the provided solutions were incorrect (But who knows?)

Been a while since I took the SAT. Before 1982 though not by much. You were to use the answer that is correct or closest to correct. The best answer in other words. So one of those answers is more correct than any others any way you slice it. Also out of the number of people who took it, some would have guessed and merely at random far more than three people would have guessed correctly.

My answer would have been 3 at first glance. If I looked longer I would have chosen 9/2. Here is one explanation I have found though this isn't how I would have thought of it. I would have thought the circumferance being traveled by the center of circle A is not that of B, but of B+1/3 of B which would have given the correct answer of 4.

This SAT Math Question Got No Correct Submissions. Can You Solve It? Sunday Puzzle – Mind Your Decisions

mindyourdecisions.com