Problem Solving Demonstration

[TomFoolery]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/03/upshot/a-quick-puzzle-to-test-your-problem-solving.html?_r=1&abt=0002&abg=1

A short game sheds light on government policy, corporate America and why no one likes to be wrong.

Here’s how it works:

We’ve chosen a rule that some sequences of three numbers obey â€" and some do not. Your job is to guess what the rule is.

Yes, there's elementary school level math involved, and it's one problem, but I was quite surprised by my answer.

[Sal1981]

Well, I failed. And I failed so spectacularly that I fell into to the trap described. Although I only did 2 checks :/

Should've tried deviations to check for exponent, logarithm and so on which would eliminate easier function calls.

[kilodelta]

Ha! Good find. I felt that my two guesses were enough to identify the rule. Though I was correct, it nailed me on confirmation bias... that's what she said...

[TomFoolery]

I failed too. I try to console myself by saying I checked three sets of numbers to verify my point, but failing is failing.

[dtq123]

"Any Numbers In Order" 

[Termin]

 I got the number sequences right, but not the reason, I thought is was exponents

[trdsf]

I am happy to say I got it -- I fell into their 9%  :)

[drunkenshoe]

Said yes to 2 sequence checks, but didn't tell anything to me as 'no' or 'yes' after I typed "Sequence goes on with multiplying by two".

[doorknob]

LOL I like it!

I heard one no. But I did guess the answer correctly.

[Atheon]

But in math, the word "sequence" implies that subsequent numbers are specific (even if not calculable by known methods).

[SGOS]

I blew it.

[doorknob]

what we really should compare is how many sequences you checked before answering.


I bet a lot of people got one yes and then answered.

I typed in 13 different sequences before I answered.

[dtq123]

What we really should compare is how many sequences you checked before answering.

I got about 20 sequences before making my conclusion. I had about 5 no's.

[trdsf]

what we really should compare is how many sequences you checked before answering.


I bet a lot of people got one yes and then answered.

I typed in 13 different sequences before I answered.

I didn't keep count, but it was in the range of 15-20.  I was far more interested in the Nos than in the Yeses; they tell you more, sometimes.

[drunkenshoe]

But in math, the word "sequence" implies that subsequent numbers are specific (even if not calculable by known methods).

Yeah, that's a good point.

May be I didn't blow it, just because I used the specific word?