Poll: Can you answer this question?

[Jonluw]

Hiya escapists.

I stumbled across an old question for the second time today.
After seeing all the strange replies people manage to come up with for the question, I feel I need to see if the escapist community does better.

If you are to choose one of the options below at random, what is the probability that the option you choose is the correct answer?

A: 20%
B: 40%
C: 60%
D: 20%
E: 0%

Edit: The question has been edited to contain an additional option.

 

[Mayhaps]

what is the probability that the option you choose is the correct answer to this question?

A: 25%
B: 50%
C: 60%
D: 25%

It's 33.3(repeating)% seeing as there are only 3 possible answers. Your question has no answer as a result.

The probability of being right is 0% because none of the answers are correct.

 

[ClockworkPenguin]

Ha, i am loving the results of the poll so far. The answer is of course 0%. Interestingly, if you put 0% as an option the puzzle becomes a paradox even if you do cheat by choosing non-presented answers. If the answer is 0% it isn't because it's 20%. If its 20% it isn't, because that isn't an option, so the answer is 0%.

The correct answer is therefore penguins (I am in no way biased).

 

[Jonluw]

Ha, i am loving the results of the poll so far. The answer is of course 0%. Interestingly, if you put 0% as an option the puzzle becomes a paradox even if you do cheat by choosing non-presented answers. If the answer is 0% it isn't because it's 20%. If its 20% it isn't, because that isn't an option, so the answer is 0%.

Interesting thought.
At last a reply I haven't seen before. If I were to add 0% as an option, I would change A and D to say 20% instead of 25% though. And have B say 40% instead of 50%.
I'll try to edit it.

 

[Smertnik]

0 because there's no question.

 

[Powereaver]

Look at the penguins, arent they adorable *points* and shouldnt you have a 1 in 5 chance.. so 20% since theres 5 options?

 

[StBishop]

Trick question.

Spoiler: my reasoning

If there were only one answer stating 20% of the 5 options, it would be 20%.

As there are two, it's 40%. Making 20% incorrect. However as there is only one option giving you 40% it would give you a 20% chance, but there's two ways you can get 20%. Endless loop.

You would assume you cannot get the answer correct. It is impossible.
In probability 1 = certain 0 = impossible the answer would be 0% (this is also self evident).

Because 0% is an option, you now have a 20% chance, which feeds back into the previous loop.

EDIT: I forgot the to add this tack which I took too:
There's only 4 actual options (randomness doesn't care about frequency, it's one choice so each option is equally possible)

Answer is 25%, there is no 25%. You have no chance. 0% is an option so what now?
Well if you're able to pick 0% it's no longer impossible.

Endless loop again.

How did I go?

 

[StBishop]

Look at the penguins, arent they adorable *points* and shouldnt you have a 1 in 5 chance.. so 20% since theres 5 options?

Ahh, but there's two options which represent 20% so you have a 2/5 chance.
Keep going.

 

[Jonluw]

Look at the penguins, arent they adorable *points* and shouldnt you have a 1 in 5 chance.. so 20% since theres 5 options?

Listen - or read. Whatever - to what this guy says.

Trick question.

Spoiler: my reasoning

If there were only one answer stating 20% of the 5 options, it would be 20%.

As there are two, it's 40%. Making 20% incorrect. However as there is only one option giving you 40% it would give you a 20% chance, but there's two ways you can get 20%. Endless loop.

You would assume you cannot get the answer correct. It is impossible.
In probability 1 = certain 0 = impossible the answer would be 0% (this is also self evident).

Because 0% is an option, you now have a 20% chance, which feeds back into the previous loop.

How did I go?

And what's with the penguins? Does noone like alpacas?

 

[Jonluw]

Snip

Snip.

Snip.

I guess I should make you guys aware that I changed the question, seeing how you're the only ones who managed to answer before I did.

 

[ClockworkPenguin]

Trick question.

Spoiler: my reasoning

If there were only one answer stating 20% of the 5 options, it would be 20%.

As there are two, it's 40%. Making 20% incorrect. However as there is only one option giving you 40% it would give you a 20% chance, but there's two ways you can get 20%. Endless loop.

You would assume you cannot get the answer correct. It is impossible.
In probability 1 = certain 0 = impossible the answer would be 0% (this is also self evident).

Because 0% is an option, you now have a 20% chance, which feeds back into the previous loop.

EDIT: I forgot the to add this tack which I took too:
There's only 4 actual options (randomness doesn't care about frequency, it's one choice so each option is equally possible)

Answer is 25%, there is no 25%. You have no chance. 0% is an option so what now?
Well if you're able to pick 0% it's no longer impossible.

Endless loop again.

How did I go?

I would say your reasoning is flawless right up until you say that the answer should be 25%. the chance of randomly selecting a given answer is affected by the frequency of each answer.

By your reasoning, if i had a bag of 9 blue tokens and 1 red token, the chance of selecting a red token would be 50%.

You are right that its a trick question, i recommend memorising it for use in a robot apocalypse.


captcha: pork pies.
But I was telling the truth! Honest!

 

[Jonluw]

EDIT: I forgot the to add this tack which I took too:
There's only 4 actual options (randomness doesn't care about frequency, it's one choice so each option is equally possible)

Randomness does care about frequency though.
If you have a hat with five pieces of paper in it. On each piece is written 20%, 50%, 60%, and 20% respectively. i.e. there are two notes that say 20%.
Picking a random option (note, in this simile) thus leaves a 40% chance of picking a note that says 20%.

 

[Mayhaps]

Hiya escapists.

I stumbled across an old question for the second time today.
After seeing all the strange replies people manage to come up with for the question, I feel I need to see if the escapist community does better.

If you are to choose one of the options below at random, what is the probability that the option you choose is the correct answer?

A: 20%
B: 40%
C: 60%
D: 20%
E: 0%

Edit: The question has been edited to contain an additional option.

It's not as fun of a question now, you could just say
A x%
B y%
C z%
D w%
E 0%
where xyzw are all wrong answers.
The trick with the question was that the answer wasn't one of the options, nor did it have to be, which you see if you read the question carefully, now it's just a question with a null answer.

The fact that the double kills the option 20% (before 25%) isn't very exciting, not to me anyway.

 

[Brandon237]

What... the... fuck?
3 people chose A but no-one chose D?!

But obviously considering this painful paradox, there is no right answer. The peguin judges have made it so.
At least the majority of voters saw through this... except the ones who chose A

 

[Jonluw]

It's not as fun of a question now, you could just say
A x%
B y%
C z%
D w%
E 0%
where xyzw are all wrong answers.
The trick with the question was that the answer wasn't one of the options, nor did it have to be, which you see if you read the question carefully, now it's just a question with a null answer.

"A null answer"?
I'm not familiar with that expression.
What's it mean?

 

[Mayhaps]

it can mean nonexistent/worthless/empty/meaningless/pointless

 

[Jonluw]

it can mean nonexistent/worthless/empty/meaningless/pointless

And you think that's less interesting than the answer being one that is not included in the presented alternatives?

 

[Mayhaps]

it can mean nonexistent/worthless/empty/meaningless/pointless

And you think that's less interesting than the answer being one that is not included in the presented alternatives?

well yes, a trick question is funnier because it has an answer.

The question:
If you are to choose one of the options below at random, what is the probability that the option you choose is the correct answer?

Or in other words: What's the probability that one of those options are correct? It never asks you to answer with one of the options, but that's what your first instinct would be.
Maybe that wasn't your thought when you posted the question, but it's the answer nonetheless.

 

[Jonluw]

it can mean nonexistent/worthless/empty/meaningless/pointless

And you think that's less interesting than the answer being one that is not included in the presented alternatives?

well yes, a trick question is funnier because it has an answer.

The question:
If you are to choose one of the options below at random, what is the probability that the option you choose is the correct answer?

Or in other words: What's the probability that one of those options are correct? It never asks you to answer with one of the options, but that's what your first instinct would be.
Maybe that wasn't your thought when you posted the question, but it's the answer nonetheless.

That's why I changed it though. Because I noticed that it just turned into one of those "Thinking outside of the box" exercises if I left it as it was.
The thing about the question that fascinated me when I first saw it was the looping effect, not that it's a clever outside the box thing.

 

[StBishop]

Trick question.

Spoiler: my reasoning

If there were only one answer stating 20% of the 5 options, it would be 20%.

As there are two, it's 40%. Making 20% incorrect. However as there is only one option giving you 40% it would give you a 20% chance, but there's two ways you can get 20%. Endless loop.

You would assume you cannot get the answer correct. It is impossible.
In probability 1 = certain 0 = impossible the answer would be 0% (this is also self evident).

Because 0% is an option, you now have a 20% chance, which feeds back into the previous loop.

EDIT: I forgot the to add this tack which I took too:
There's only 4 actual options (randomness doesn't care about frequency, it's one choice so each option is equally possible)

Answer is 25%, there is no 25%. You have no chance. 0% is an option so what now?
Well if you're able to pick 0% it's no longer impossible.

Endless loop again.

How did I go?

I would say your reasoning is flawless right up until you say that the answer should be 25%. the chance of randomly selecting a given answer is affected by the frequency of each answer.

By your reasoning, if i had a bag of 9 blue tokens and 1 red token, the chance of selecting a red token would be 50%.

You are right that its a trick question, i recommend memorising it for use in a robot apocalypse.


captcha: pork pies.
But I was telling the truth! Honest!

EDIT: I forgot the to add this tack which I took too:
There's only 4 actual options (randomness doesn't care about frequency, it's one choice so each option is equally possible)

Randomness does care about frequency though.
If you have a hat with five pieces of paper in it. On each piece is written 20%, 50%, 60%, and 20% respectively. i.e. there are two notes that say 20%.
Picking a random option (note, in this simile) thus leaves a 40% chance of picking a note that says 20%.

Yeah, I was thinking "this isn't right" as I wrote it. I was like... wait what am I saying.

But my mind did do that for a little while as I was questioning my logic. I tend to do that.

I am tired so I didn't trust myself, so when my mind divided by 0 I simply assumed I was too tired to understand why it thought it could rewrite mathematical principals which are older than the country I live in. I trusted it and I made myself look like a fool.

Oh well.