Solve this mathematical conundrum

The Internet

If you choose an answer to this question at random, what is the chance you will be correct?

A)25%
B)50%
C)60%
D)25%

Oranage2

42%

SEPT 23 1989

58008

sensibleken

is there an outpatients outing today or something?

TheZohanS

B

Unique User Name

B

SEPT 23 1989

E

4leto

c 60%

D1stant

What question?

28064212

E) A duck

Question is nonsensical

beefjerky

The question doesn't give any context.

"what is the chance you will be correct?"

About what?

ejmaztec

2 lemons.

Ficheall

beefjerky wrote: »

The question doesn't give any context.

"what is the chance you will be correct?"

About what?

About the chance of randomly choosing the correct answer.

Spunge

This is making my brain hurt the more i think about it.

Voodu Child

It depends what you mean by 'If'.

SEPT 23 1989

This reminds me i must brush the dogs teeth

hondasam

C ya.

Kazvixen

B

livinsane

You have more chance of being wrong...if the answer is not 25%.

Da_Doc

The more I try to think about it the more my brain hurts.

Seeing as this is AG, is the answer Atari Jaguar?

4leto

livinsane wrote: »

You have more chance of being wrong...if the answer is not 25%.

Its not 25% because one of the answers is right out of the 4, so its 60%, I think.

OP whats the answer

ejmaztec

This is one of those where the OP steals your wallet while you're wearing your brain out trying to come up with an answer.

4leto

ejmaztec wrote: »

This is one of those where the OP steals your wallet while you're wearing your brain out trying to come up with an answer.

Yep finally someone has got the right answer.

Ficheall

4leto wrote: »

Its not 25% because one of the answers is right out of the 4, so its 60%, I think.

OP whats the answer

I don't follow where you're getting the 60% from, can you elaborate?
It's a trick question anyway - I'm just curious as to how one could come up with 60%. I can see where one might draw the other answers from.

Da_Doc

There is no answer to the question, if the "answer" were 25% then there would be a 50 50 chance of picking 25% at random because it appears twice, but therefore that would make the "answer" 50%: it cant be 25% and 50%

If the "answer" is not 25% then its either 50% or 60% and you have a 25% chance of picking it at random but that would make the "answer" 25% same as above it cant take two values

Trick question

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_paradox

Where To

0%

Overheal

It would be 25%, if you picked at random.

RachaelVO

sensibleken wrote: »

is there an outpatients outing today or something?

Seems like it, some VERY strange threads on here today, and that's saying something considering this is AH!!!!!!!!

TiGeR KiNgS

it would be B,
because 25% is answer to 2 possibilities

but its probably a trick, so C is right using Bayesian theory ?

Where To

How do we know if one of the answers is the correct answer to the question?

bluescreen

B

hooradiation

sensibleken wrote: »

is there an outpatients outing today or something?

I do enjoy how the poster in AH seem to revel in their ignorance.

Handy11

There is no chance. There has to be a substantial question from which to derive an answer.

Pherekydes

If you choose A or D at random you would be wrong because you've a 50% chance of choosing either one. If you choose B at random you'd be wrong because you've a 25% chance of choosing it. And choosing C will be wrong because it makes no sense that I can make out. So you've zero chance of choosing the correct answer but that isn't one of the options, so
[getting dizzy] you must not ch[fainting]oose at a...

Wait! Define "this question".

lau1247

it's either right or it's either wrong.. 50% i'd say

bluewolf

bluewolf wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_paradox

http://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/c2p7u/multiple_choice_if_you_choose_an_answer_to_this/

Jaden

boards.ie, yesterday's Reddit Today.

Suppose we'll see this on broadsheet.ie tomorrow

Kasabian

Mathematics have no use IRL.

c_man

It looks like a cock.


Errr...

pickarooney

bluewolf wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_paradox

Going for the whole "rob your house and garden while you roll into a ball and cry over how much your mind burns" trick?

Fremen

bluewolf wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_paradox

It's closer to the liar's paradox:

This sentence is false.

If the sentence is false, then it follows that it's true.
If it's true, then it's false.

The conclusion is that it's not sensible to assign a notion of "truth" to all possible sentences.

Note the parallel in the OP:
if the 'answer' is 25%, you'll pick it 50% of the time. If the 'answer' is 50%, you pick it 25% of the time. The 60% is just there so the numbers work out.

Pherekydes

Kasabian wrote: »

Mathematics have no use IRL.

Rivest, Shamir and Adleman might disagree with you.

mickdw

Zero

Kasabian

Pherekydes wrote: »

Rivest, Shamir and Adleman might disagree with you.

Why would they?

4leto

bluewolf wrote: »

http://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/c2p7u/multiple_choice_if_you_choose_an_answer_to_this/

Ahhhh here

That's it I am unfollowing this thread,

Faith+1

They say it works 60% of the time, every time.

Eathrin

What a stupid question, How many answers are there? You could have a 1/7'000'000'000 chance of guessing "who"?

4leto

I like the John Nash one, if you had a circular cake, a knife and no weighing scales, how would you divide the cake between 2 people that would please both parties.

ANS: 1 cuts the cake the other gets to choose which piece he wants.

Fremen

Kasabian wrote: »

Why would they?

They developed the cryptographic algorithm that lets you use your credit card on the internet.

What you really mean is that mathematics is not directly useful to you - because your job doesn't require it. I might as well argue that spanish is useless.

Kasabian

Fremen wrote: »

They developed the cryptographic algorithm that lets you use your credit card on the internet.

What you really mean is that mathematics is not directly useful to you - because your job doesn't require it. I might as well argue that spanish is useless.

17 minutes, I was expecting a quicker response.

Gracias