Travis Smith: my resume, bio and photos back to the main blog page

The Two Answers

posted at 5:24 pm
on Dec. 4, 2006

Comments: 2 so far

Permalink

 

Previous entry:
Busy Weekend

Next entry:
Five Things You Don’t Know About Me

OK, here’s the answers to the logic questions I asked last week:

Don’t peek!

Ready?

OK, #1 first.

This is a percentages problem and a human perception problem, that comes up with a really counter-intuitive result.  Most people think that, since there are only 15% blue cabs, and since the color is correctly identified 80% of the time, that it’s very likely a blue cab will be properly identified.

But that ignores people trying to identify green cabs.  Here’s the math: if 100 people see 100 cabs, there are going to be 15 truly blue cabs identified.  12 of those blue cabs would identified as blue. (The other 3 would be called green by mistake.)

Meanwhile, of the 85 green cabs, 68 would be correctly identified as green (80%).  The other 17 green cabs would be called blue.  So of the people who said “Hey, that’s blue,” we have 12 correct identifications of blue cabs, and 17 mistaken blue identifications.  12 out of 29 correct, that’s only 41% correct, and a whopping 59% incorrect identifications.

And that’s just one reason why eye witness reports are fairly unreliable.  Mitzy came closest in getting that question correct.

Now, #2.  The secret is, you need to get the ropes mostly all burning at once.  So, fold one of the ropes over, and hold both ends together with one end of the other rope.  Light the stick and then light the three ropes ends at once with the stick.  The first rope is now lit at both ends and will burn up in 30 minutes.

This is called burning the candle at both ends and I am familiar with the technique.

Meanwhile, when 30 minutes have passed and the first rope is gone, the second rope will have burned half way (because it’s only lit at one end).  Put it out.

So you now have left a rope that will take 30 minutes to burn, or 15 minutes to burn if you light both ends. And you can time 15 minutes. Tah dah!

Christina said she’d make a sun dial. Mitzy said she’d look at her watch.  I’d accept both answers, though neither is really the one I was looking for.  And that means MITZY has won the prize.  Send me your address and the book is on its way!



 
 

 

Previous entry:
Busy Weekend

Next entry:
Five Things You Don’t Know About Me

Overheard

“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”

...who said it?

“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”

...who said it?

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

...who said it?

“I play with variables constantly.”

...who said it?

“Only the person who has learned Continual Love coming from a heart of Gratitude/Worship can effectively deal with the problem of loneliness.”

...who said it?

Comments

 

 

Add a Comment

 

 

Name:


Email: (optional)


URL: (optional)


Submit the word you see below:


 

 

 

Your comment:


Remember my personal info


Email me about follow-ups


 

Syndication Links


Click here for the main
XML feed for this blog.



Column only



Side links only



Quotes only

 

MetaBlogs

AboutBlogs

Clients

Humor

Journalism

Los Angeles

Mac

News

Personal 1

Personal 2

Photos

Politics

Other A-F

Other G-Q

Other R-Z

SocialNetworking

Tech 1

Tech 2

Travel

Vancouver 1

Vancouver 2

Vancouver 3

Vancouver 4

BizBlogs

Back to Main

 

Powered by
Expression Engine

 

Copyright 1995 - 2024 Mar 28

 

 

Want Column?

Enter your email address:


It will NEVER be shared.
Unsubscribe

You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)