Try this... and fail... :)

StarSong said:
This is what threw me.
Click to expand...

This was not part of the original problem. @Oris Borloff added it later and I was lucky enough for it to have the same answer both in Greek and English (είκοσι έξι, twenty six). It would be very confusing if the answer was different.

In general I found this to be a very interesting riddle in the sense that people in 99.99% of the cases try to find a mathematical answer to it. We are so conditioned!
 
CAKCy said:
This was not part of the original problem. @Oris Borloff added it later and I was lucky enough for it to have the same answer both in Greek and English (είκοσι έξι, twenty six). It would be very confusing if the answer was different.

In general I found this to be a very interesting riddle in the sense that people in 99.99% of the cases try to find a mathematical answer to it. We are so conditioned!
Click to expand...
I wouldn't have ever gotten the answer to it, but I'm not good at those sorts of things. I can't do British crossword puzzles either, well--there's a whole lotta things I can't do.
 
CAKCy said:
How did they learn the language (if not from you)?
Click to expand...
Hubby and his sister were raised in Eagle Pass, Texas (a small town near the Mexican border). They were raised by the grandparents. Grandparents had 3 Mexican women working for them as housekeepers, cooks, etc. These women taught my husband and his sister how to speak Spanish. They did a great job, I must say.
 
The ability to discern and interpret patterns is one of the reasons humans survived and thrived as well as we did. We problem solve by interpreting events and data against previously encountered events and data.

This "quiz" takes advantage of human nature and some slight of hand (slight of keyboard?). When seeing numbers and symbols typically associated with number operations, our brain structure and experience tells us to evaluate the problem within that scope. It's very similar to being distracted by a magician's flourishes with one hand while he palms a card with the other. (Survival and instinct kicks in here, too. We pay attention to that which is moving - survival rates are vastly better when we pay closer attention to the advancing lion than to the stationary rock.)
Most would have figured this out in a couple of minutes if it had been stated thus:
Six = three
Twelve = Six
Eighteen = ?

We would have solved it immediately if it had been stated:
Six = 3
Twelve = 6
Eighteen = ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top