15 Germinal CCXIII (April 4, 2005)
Logic Quiz
Pop quiz time!
You are given the following hypothesis: "If a card has a vowel on one side, then it must have an even number on the other," plus the following 4 cards:
E, 4, 7, and K.
You're permitted to turn over two of them in order to test the hypothesis. Which two do you chose?
Too easy. Of course, I can't post the answer here since it would spoil it for others.
Posted by peterjm at 16 Germinal CCXIII 01:15 (2005/04/05)
Well, I was going to say rot13 it, and then post it, but then I remembered that since numbers don't rot13, anyone glancing at it would always be able to tell at least one of your answers.
However, since no one else ever posts here, feel free to post the answer anyways.
Posted by ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://leftblank.org/nav-commenters.gif)
I read here. I just don't have the mental capacity to guess. Where I to guess, I'd say you guess E and 4, since your hypothesis doesn't say anything about the converse.
I suck at these games though.
Right then. If Peter will post his guess, then I'll post the answer. (Since I really don't expect anyone else to comment.)
It's actually E and 7, not E and 4. I thought the same thing as Derek at first (including the part about the converse), but corrected myself before I wrote my first comment.
Turning over 4 doesn't provide you with any information, since if it's a vowel, it agrees with the hypothesis, but if it's not a vowel, then you get nothing. An experiment that can only provide positive evidence for a hypothesis isn't a good experiment.
Turning over 7 gives you a chance to disprove the hypothesis, since you can check if it's a vowel.
Posted by peterjm at 17 Germinal CCXIII 17:25 (2005/04/06)
And Peter is exactly right. Although, if it makes Derek feel better, "E & 4" is the most commonly given answer. (At least according to the Wikipedia article I swiped this from.)
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