explain this to my feeble mind (you math fucks)

[givememyleg]

a/d are correct in a random multiple choice question w 4 possibilities. so if both of them are right, then 50% of the time you will select the correct answer at random, which makes b correct for this question.... i think? but then if b is correct, there is only one correct answer, which makes it 25% possible to select it at random, so then a/d are both correct, which again makes b correct.

or is it some kind of trick question? is it 75%? or something else?

help my are tard brain.

[d0zer]

it's a paradox. Both 25% and 50% exist in states of truthiness and untruthiness simultaneously because of the cyclic dependencies created by the nature of uhhh....something about schrodinger or something.

Iunno, just read the reddit thread. all will be explained.

[givememyleg]

i didn't come across it via reddit.

[d0zer]

Probability mindfuck : funny

[givememyleg]

ya but where's the pics of your wife tied up?

[d0zer]

I actually took video of that event. Not sure if she's destroyed the tape or not, I should go hunting for it and make some digital backups.

[a500lbgorilla]

Since the question only implies that the 4 choices are the possible answers but does not demonstrate it so, you have an infinite set of answers to randomly select from. Assuming that at any given time there is 1 and only 1 probability for you to match against, the chance for selecting it correctly is 0.

So 0%

I actually took video of that event. Not sure if she's destroyed the tape or not, I should go hunting for it and make some digital backups.

More importantly, let's light a fire under this. d0zer you have the chance for something special here... for people to remember daven as that douche who we used to confuse with you.

[Imthenewfish]

i've thought about this for awhile, and i've come to the conclusion that 1/3 is the only real option here..

[kiwiMark]

I get 37.5%.

[Lukie]

I would put this 'problem' more in the realm of philosophy and not really math.

The whole thing seems like some sort of fallacy because there really isn't a question one could deduce an answer from and the answer on all tests I have ever been taken should be soley answerable from the information contained in the question, not proposed answers.

[d0zer]

yeah the issue of having the answer affected by the possible answers creates a cyclic dependency uncharacteristic of multiple choice questions. If 25% is the correct answer, then 50% becomes correct, but if 50% is correct, then 25% becomes correct, but if 25% is the correct answer....

CONCLUSION: this question is unanswerable and is just designed to fuck with your head.

[kiwiMark]

yeah the issue of having the answer affected by the possible answers creates a cyclic dependency uncharacteristic of multiple choice questions. If 25% is the correct answer, then 50% becomes correct, but if 50% is correct, then 25% becomes correct, but if 25% is the correct answer....

CONCLUSION: this question is unanswerable and is just designed to fuck with your head.

Indeedy.

And I think you can even show the question doesn't work mathematically:

0.25 (chance of picking A) * .50 (chance of "25%" being correct answer (there are two of them, so two 25%s of the time it's gonna be the correct answer, assuming we have to pick one of the four and since we don't know which its random which is correct) +
0.25 (B) * 0.25 (chance of "50%" being correct +
0.25 (C) * 0.25 (chance of "60%" being correct +
0.25 (D) * 0.50 (chance of "25%" being correct

=0.375=37.5%

Wheeeeereas we can see if the options were: 50%, 37.5%, 60%, 25%

The math becomes 0.25*0.25*4 which is 0.25=25% and we can see that there is a possible answer which is D.

[Nekrogovner]

Quantum entanglement. Or as d0zer said it's a Schrodingers cat problem. Lets put it in "many worlds" perspective. Before you actually choose an answer at random, you can say many different claims about it, but once you actually come to the point where you choose answer at random, universe splits into 4 different universes where in each one you made a different choice. And of course, in each of those universes, except the C universe, that answer will be correct.

A brilliant trolling question. Just don't think of it too much, otherwise you will split up universe so much time that there will be no more place in MULTIVERSE and you will probably cause a new Big Bang. True story.

[kiwiMark]

And of course, in each of those universes, except the C universe, that answer will be correct.

No? or? am confuse

[bigred]

No? or? am confuse

[bjsaust]

What everyone's trying to say is, its a stupid question.

[BennyLaRue]

Multiple choice answers are not "at random". Therefore, the answer to the question is 1 out of choices approaching infinity with that not being one of the multiple choice answers. The question, then, cannot be answered as constructed.

Also, it's stupid.

[givememyleg]

your stupid

[BennyLaRue]

What about my stupid?

[givememyleg]

its stupid

[BennyLaRue]

I thought it was my stupid. Now it's the stupid's stupid?

[givememyleg]

no it is and always has been your stupid. stupid.

[spoonitnow]

Was scrolling through FTR for the first time in months and saw this thread. This pic and variations of it have been making the rounds lately. It's an offshoot example of what's called Russell's paradox, which is kinda sorta somewhat important to know about in set theory. Long story short, it's a kind of set contradiction where you define something that cannot exist based on the definition. A related example would be deciding if, "This sentence is false," is true or false.

The mathy part of it is kind of long and drawn out, but a fun consequence of the paradox mentioned above is that if you want to avoid it, you can't define a set as any collection of objects (which is how most traditional math classes define a set).