A Simple Logic Question That Most Harvard Students Get Wrong

Business Insider ^ | 12/12/2012 | Gus Lubin

[SeekAndFind]

Havard students get near-perfect SAT scores. These are smart, smart kids. So they shouldn't have trouble with a simple logic question, right?

Try the following puzzle:

A bat and ball cost $1.10.

The bat costs one dollar more than the ball.

How much does the ball cost?

Scroll down for the answer ...

[Cyman]

Urkel would say “The ball represents centuries of oppression and is probably made by the criminal 1%. It should cost nothing and I am introducing a bill that everyone below the poverty line receives a new ball every week.”

[FatherofFive]

0bama/Harvard math:

a=b
a² = ab
a² - b² = ab - b²
(a – b) (a + b) = b (a – b)
(a – b) (a + b) = b (a – b)
(a + b) = b
But a = b, therefore
a + a = a
2a = a

hence
2 = 1

So we can double the taxes on the rich and they come out OK. Got it?

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

That just depends if you were referring to the people with the Big Bats or the Small Bats.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Missed option D. Borrow more money

[Bshaw]

“Ok, that’s cool, but what happened to the little cutie?”

That’s precisely the answer this low information reader was looking for!

[dangus]

$1.10. They’re a package deal. If you said 5 cents, you don’t understand marketing.

[Fresh Wind]

I didn’t know Obama had balls.

He did, until Je$$e Jack$$on ripped them off.

[dangus]

We can acquire the raw materials for 5 cents, but with the right synergy between public and private sectors, we can probably charge taxpayers $2,300.

[bmwcyle]

Where can you find sporting equipment that cheap?

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Darn! Of my friends that responded, they all got it wrong! I instantly realized that one dollar is only 90 cents more than a dime, and looked for the correct answer.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

An important point about intuition is first, that while people rarely have a skill to intuit an exact answer, people are quite good in intuiting an approximate answer, up to the “practical size” of several dozen, maybe a hundred, or maybe more.

For example, if you spill an unknown number of dried beans on a table, most people would be able to give a pretty good estimate of how many there are. Of course, the fewer there are, the closer the margin of error will be as well.

The telling point is that in the natural world, this is usually enough. Using abstract techniques, like mathematics, sacrifices speed for accuracy, and as a rule is far less valuable a tool. Granted in some circumstances, it is extremely valuable, but most of these involve “mechanisms and machinations.”

As some wit once observed, in the natural world there is almost no reason at all to count over a thousand, except money.

[9YearLurker]

First you’e got to discount the legacies, affirmative-action, offspring of the high profile, and sports team admissions. Then you’ve got your artsy-fartsy, softer social science, and theater types.

Those you’ve got left should know that off the top of their head in 4 seconds.

[NTHockey]

And shipping + handling?

Then there’s the tax imposed by DeathCare; the hazardous object tax, Workers Comp, matching SSI and Medicare, ......

Pretty soon the business is “too big to fail; they qualify for a bailout and the equation collapses. Balls cost $50.00 and bats $250.00... and kids will find some other way to play baseball. Maybe a broom handle and a cork.

[Vigilanteman]

. . . : many people are overconfident, prone to place too much faith in their intuitions. They apparently find cognitive effort at least mildly unpleasant and avoid it as much as possible.

Doesn't that describe the typical Obama voter to a "T"?

[apostoli]

Nice work, that, dividing each side of the equation by Obama’s IQ... [If a = b, then a-b = 0]

Seems to work for this administration when it comes to economics. Or is eboniconomics.

[dangus]

Ow! You made my brain hurt!
Where is the algebra error?

[apostoli]

see post 55

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

I guess those kids at Hahvid aren’t so smaht after all...

[IronJack]

Bats and balls are phallic manifestations of a patriarchal, misogynistic culture. Indeed the whole game of baseball with its archaic notions of property (”stealing” bases), violence (”hits”), homo-eroticism (pitching and catching), and mindless competition are obsolete constructs in a post-modern age. The cost of these tools of male oppression shouldn’t be measured in terms of dollars and cents, but in the sufffering and oppression of our sisters around the world.

[Truth2012]

:) Thanks for sharing that part of the story. Life is so interesting, looking back. I am glad it worked out well for you both.