Wednesday, November 2, 2011

statistics

this pleasantly frustrating statistics question was recently seen on a chalkboard somewhere:

post your answer in the comments...

9 comments:

mace said...

33%?

StuntTrader said...

E) None of the above

MonkeyHybrid said...

Well, I would have to say...

B) 50%

But after reading about the Three Prisoners problem, I'm quite prepared to be proven wrong. :)

MonkeyHybrid said...

Drat. I mucked up the Three Prisoners link in my previous comment. For anyone interested, it's actually http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Prisoners_problem. Well worth a read.

Reg Broadchest said...

Ouch. My brain hurts. Is not answering a possible answer?

skywatcher88 said...

Hi Amanda:
You can only be either Right or wrong so I would say the answer is B)

Peace and clear skies!
7718

mylifescape said...

B) 50% ?? Because you have 1 in 4 chance to get it right, and 2 of the answers are 25% lol... maths was never my strong point!

Rik Gern said...

I'm no logician, but I don't think the question even
makes any sense. It' seems to be the grammatical equivalent of an M.C. Escher picture!

Unknown said...

its like quantum statistics - by picking an answer, you change the outcome.

it makes my brain hurt.

it's a simple, yet brilliant little problem.