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A Simple Logic Question That Most Harvard Students Get Wrong
Business Insider ^ | 12/12/2012 | Gus Lubin

Posted on 12/13/2012 7:28:50 AM PST by 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 ...

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Society
KEYWORDS: algebra; batandball; harvard; harvardquestion; logic
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To: SeekAndFind

Bat + Ball = $1.10 = a
Bat - Ball = $1.00 = b

Therefore, setting up the equation, we have:

(Bat + Ball) + (Bat - Ball) = a+b = $2.10

Reducing down, the + and - Ball cancels itself. And, since we’ve already solved for a+b, we can just use the resultant value of $2.10.

Therefore:

2*Bat = $2.10

Further Reducing:

(2*Bat)/2 = $2.10/2 = $1.05

—> A Bat = $1.05 <—

Therefore:

(Using total “a” from the first equation)

a - Bat = Ball | $1.10 - $1.05 = Ball

Therefore, the answer is:

Ball = $0.05


Anyhow, that’s my fuzzy math and I’ve learned to stick to my answers, even though they may be counter-intuitive!

Cheers!


61 posted on 12/13/2012 9:03:31 AM PST by DoctorBulldog (Obama sucks. End of story.)
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To: IronJack
Lol.

Impeccable logic.

62 posted on 12/13/2012 9:05:41 AM PST by Flycatcher (God speaks to us, through the supernal lightness of birds, in a special type of poetry.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Remember these were Harvard people trying to figure it out and tough questions don’t often come their way.


63 posted on 12/13/2012 9:08:33 AM PST by count-your-change (You don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: IronJack

ROFLMAO! Too funny!

Cheers!


64 posted on 12/13/2012 9:14:51 AM PST by DoctorBulldog (Obama sucks. End of story.)
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To: Oberon
Even with the answer AND the explanation I couldn't grasp the concept.

Guess that's why I never went to college.....

65 posted on 12/13/2012 9:17:58 AM PST by Hot Tabasco (Jab her with a harpoon.....)
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To: SeekAndFind

What did the students at Berkley say?

“That’s racist!”

(”And possibly homophobic.”)


66 posted on 12/13/2012 9:27:02 AM PST by servo1969
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To: Louis Foxwell

I liked your thinking. But there is a first element to the equation that will help others see how you arrived at the answer. Specifically, the use of the word ‘more’ implies that one should first remove that one dollar to ascertain the price of the price of the ball in the remainder. After doing that your equal difference result gives you the price of the ball.


67 posted on 12/13/2012 9:31:57 AM PST by Kalam (<: The answer is 42 :>)
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To: Hot Tabasco
It's not hard. Two objects together cost $1.10. One costs a dollar more than the other.

The one thing is the bat, which at $1.05 costs a dollar more than the ball... which costs $.05. The two prices are exactly a dollar apart, and when added together they add up to $1.10.

Like I said, it's not hard.

68 posted on 12/13/2012 10:07:08 AM PST by Oberon (Big Brutha Be Watchin'.)
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To: Oberon

I was trying to figure in the 8.25% tax, so got my number completely off.


69 posted on 12/13/2012 10:07:31 AM PST by ro_dreaming (G.K. Chesterton, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It’s been found hard and lef)
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To: SeekAndFind

A farmer has 21 sheep and all but seven die. How many sheep does he have left?


70 posted on 12/13/2012 10:29:22 AM PST by nikos1121
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To: nikos1121

This isn’t a math problem but a comprehension problem. Should be part of SAT Reading comprehension I guess.

If a farmer had 21 sheep in total, and all but seven died, then the answer to this riddle would be seven, since it states that all but seven have perished. It does not state that “All seven died,” it has that little key word “but” in it that will often throw the riddlee (is there such a word ) off if he or she is not listening to the riddler.


71 posted on 12/13/2012 10:37:37 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Okay then. . riddle me this, Batman: If a donkey is an ass and a sheep a ram. . .why is a ram in the ass a goose?

There, smarty-pants, answer that one.

;-)


72 posted on 12/13/2012 10:38:33 AM PST by Hulka
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To: SeekAndFind

With derivatives 90 cents is one dollar using complex aka imaginary numbers. Social justice and all that ya know.


73 posted on 12/13/2012 12:20:15 PM PST by VRWC For Truth (Roberts has perverted the Constitution)
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To: Oberon
The most important part of the article....

"Many thousands of university students have answered the bat-and-ball puzzle, and the results are shocking. More than 50% of students at Harvard, MIT, and Princeton gave the intuitive—incorrect—answer. At less selective universities, the rate of demonstrable failure to check was in excess of 80%."

Higher education? I don't think so!

74 posted on 12/13/2012 12:26:19 PM PST by newfreep (Breitbart sent me...)
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To: SeekAndFind
A Simple Logic Question That Most Harvard Students Get Wrong:

Do you students really believe Keynesian economics is sustainable???

75 posted on 12/13/2012 12:30:07 PM PST by Enough is ENOUGH (This is a whole different world we live in now. We'd better wise up.)
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To: SeekAndFind
If a farmer had 21 sheep in total, and all but seven died, then the answer to this riddle would be seven, since it states that all but seven have perished. It does not state that “All seven died,” it has that little key word “but” in it that will often throw the riddlee (is there such a word ) off if he or she is not listening to the riddler.

Wrong.. he still has 21 sheep, 14 dead ones and 7 live ones. :-)

76 posted on 12/13/2012 12:44:19 PM PST by Aunt Polgara
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To: SeekAndFind

This is a trick question.

Both, the bat and the ball, would cost nothing to those who can get them for free (which is about 50% of the population),
through government handouts.

Handouts cost nothing, according to the liberals and the communist in the White House.


77 posted on 12/13/2012 12:45:41 PM PST by adorno (Y)
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To: Epsdude

How did you make the cents sign? My keyboard doesn’t have one.


78 posted on 12/13/2012 12:52:27 PM PST by boop ("I need another Cutty Sark"-LBJ)
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To: SeekAndFind
This reminds me of my favorite “Frazz” cartoon:

Caulfield (smart black kid): So, if Farmer Festus has 28 delicious apples and sells half of them, how many does he have left:

Frazz (school janitor and renaisance man): Hard to say... If he sells them on the futures market and times it right, he could end up with more than he started with.

Caulfield: Or he could be bucking for a subsidy. 28 apples is a pretty weak crop.

Frazz: Suspiciously so... as if I'd trust anybody who markets the mealiest variety of apples as “delicious.”

Caulfield: So.. it depends.

Frazz: Yes, it depends

Caulfield: That's what I put on my test, and Mrs. Olsen gave me an “E.”

Frazz: Really?? That's what my friend Jim put in his dissertation, and they gave him a doctorate.

79 posted on 12/13/2012 1:12:14 PM PST by Aunt Polgara
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To: boop

To make a cents symbol, at least on my computer, I hold down the ALT key, type 155, then release the ALT key. ¢


80 posted on 12/13/2012 1:18:08 PM PST by pogo101
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