Logic Quiz

[bedlamhouse]

From mrlogic:

You Are Incredibly Logical

(You got 100% of the questions right) Move over Spock - you're the new master of logic You think rationally, clearly, and quickly. A seasoned problem solver, your mind is like a computer!

How Logical Are You?

Analysis of three questions on the quiz:

1) This is algebra, not logic. The fact that it is multiple choice means you could make a choice through testing each answer, but that isn't logic either - that's an "iterative solution".

5) This isn't the only answer, as probability theory actually predicts that fewer than the absolute number given by logic would unexpectedly be the answer. With the small population and again with the multiple-choice format the answer can be deduced, but if the probability-predicted answer was included it might be much tougher. Unfortunately, I don't remember how to calculate the expected answer, so mathematically (since you can only choose an integral number of shoes or socks) the answer with this size population might really be the same, but it's the principle of the thing. "Damn your logic, Spock. I'm a statistician, not a scientist!"

7) Boy, does THIS one make a huge assumption about the cypher algorithm. Heck, it makes a huge assumption that it is a cypher at all - it could be a code and thus the substitution could be completely random.

This bugs me in the same way that IQ tests that ask math or "which comes next" questions bother me. There are too many other learned skills that apply to the solutions.

Comments

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

My, I was irritated by the "X will only go to the movies if she can drive" question. Because the answers were based on whether she did drive, not whether she could drive.

Tests like this are simultaneously compelling and irritating, aren't they?

[madfilkentist]

On No. 5, the criterion is to be _sure_ you have a matching pair before coming into the light, so probability theory wouldn't enter into it.

No. 4 bothers me for a slightly different reason -- it's talking about two different events, one in the past and one in the future.

[bedlamhouse]

Since the correct grammatical interpretation of "will go" is "to be willing to go" (as opposed to "shall go" which would be "is going to go"), the question is worded correctly. That puts it in the same category as question 2, which is a fairly common condition/result logic question structure.

[bedlamhouse]

As peteralway said, the grammatical situation in question 4 is the word "can" used in the sense of "is allowed to" instead of its proper meaning as "is able to".

[pafuts.livejournal.com]

Hey Bill?

Yer scarin' me!

[bedlamhouse]

A man's gotta geek what a man's gotta geek. (*grin*)

[sibylle]

It is also culture specific - the homerun thing? Gee, indeed, I know how those score, yes I do. (Not).

[bedlamhouse]

I guess I can see that, as the ability to make the right choice does depend on knowing that someone else could score even if she didn't hit the home run. It isn't so much that you have to know how much a home run scores, it is that you need to know that it isn't a "final scoring opportunity" situation.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

The quiz claims I got two wrong; I don't know if I (a) clicked the wrong choice and didn't notice, (b) misinterpreted the ambiguity in a question or two, or (c) just had a brain fart. If I wanted to waste three times as much time, I could eliminate (a) and (c), but I still wouldn't know which question I interpreted differently from how I was supposed to. I hate not being able to see which questions I got wrong.

[bedlamhouse]

I almost got the last one wrong but caught my mistake when I reviewed my answers.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

You reviewed your answers? Cheater.

[billroper]

I got 100% too, but had to spend a bit of time going over the baseball answer. :)

[bedlamhouse]

Yeah, they didn't give you her slugging percentage or tell you who the pitcher was. How are you supposed to figure out the answer? (*grin*)

[billroper]

Actually, the problem was deciding how much the quiz writer knew about baseball. Enough, apparently. :)

[miari.livejournal.com]

88% here. In my defense, I was rather speeding through the thing. Still, it DID say "Move over Spock". Can't be TOO disappointed given that comment;)

[jhayman.livejournal.com]

I got 100% too. And I surely don't lay claim to always being logical.

[scs-11.livejournal.com]

I'd like to say that I got 100% (because I did) but I won't because Bill will use it to compare our geekiness quotients again.

By the way, did anybody notice the unstated assumption in question 5? It assumes you have equal quantities of each color. If you don't make that assumption, then all the answers are wrong.