View Poll Results: Is a married person looking at an unmarried person?

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Thread: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

  1. #33
    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    Quote Originally Posted by Zak33 View Post
    so.... whats the answer then? ...
    As Galant's already posted:

    Quote Originally Posted by Galant View Post
    The answer, for those who haven't found it already, is Yes. An married person is definitely looking at an unmarried person. This is because there are two possible scenarios for Anne, married or unmarried. No matter which one she is though, the situation will always end up with a married person looking at an unmarried person.
    The answer essentially relies in a literal interpretation of the word "unmarried" (i.e. that everyone who is not married is unmarried), but that's hardly surprising for a word-based logic puzzle. If Anne is married, Anne (married) is looking at George (unmarried) and the answer is yes. If Anne if unmarried, Jack (married) is looking at Anne (unmarried) and the answer is still yes. Any other answer requires you to make assupmtions about either the meaning of the puzzle or the status of its participants, and there is no logical basis to make those further assumptions; you should always answer a logic puzzle based purely on the information provided in the question.

    The interesting thing for me would be whether the gender-norming of the names would make any difference. Are people thrown by having two typically male names and one typically female? If the middle person was Andrew would you get a different spread of answers, because you're removing the male-female axis that is closely associated with marriage?

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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen View Post
    Would I? Not in the context of today's society, in the UK, but it is not unknown in some cultures, nor in the UK's history.
    If a child can't be described as unmarried then your statement about unmarried being the set that contains all people who aren't married is false.

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    Senior Member Smudger's Avatar
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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    No matter what age a child can be married at, they are still either married or unmarried. Whether they are unmarried because the law disallows it or not, they are still in one of two states

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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    Quote Originally Posted by EndlessWaves View Post
    If a child can't be described as unmarried then your statement about unmarried being the set that contains all people who aren't married is false.
    As Smudger said.

    It's not about descriptions. Some legal systems allow "children" to be married, while others don't. Also, the age at which someone becomes an adult varies.

    None of that matters. Married is a state where you either are, or aren't. In the UK, that's a legal issue, and has been for a couple of hundred years. In some places, it may be a religious competency, but either way, either someone is married or they aren't. Children, here and in this age, aren't.

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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    Just in case anyone missed it, this video takes a look at the question as well as why some might not get it right:

    No trees were harmed in the creation of this message. However, many electrons were displaced and terribly inconvenienced.

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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    I'm a bit disappointed with myself for not getting this as a programmer... gonna hang up my keyboard and live under a bridge now.

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    If ever you feel like you don't deserve to be a programmer, go and work on the NPM team
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    Funking Prink! Raz316's Avatar
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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    Ironically enough, I am having lots of fun with NPM today... (or a tool that uses NPM (or a tool that uses a tool that uses NPM (or a tool that uses a tool that uses a tool that uses NPM) or a tool that users a tool that uses a tool that uses a The specified path, file name, or both are too long

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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    Quote Originally Posted by TheAnimus View Post
    If ever you feel like you don't deserve to be a programmer, go and work on the NPM team
    I thought (formerly Lotus now IBM) Notes was the designated project for bad programmers?

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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    Saw this first time round and I'm a little stupefied by the fact that quite a few people get this wrong and even think that there's an issue with the wording? It's easy and simple. A > B > C. A is 10, C is 5. Is A > C?
    Last edited by wazzickle; 06-04-2016 at 10:17 AM. Reason: thing/think

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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    Providing Anne isn't standing on a corner -- if that is the case Jack cannot see George he can only see Anne who's marital status is unknown
    It isn't stated that they are in a straight line

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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    It doesn't matter if A can see C or if she's on a corner or if they're in a straight line. As long as A can see B and B can see C, the question works
    Last edited by Smudger; 06-04-2016 at 09:21 AM.

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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen View Post
    As Smudger said.

    It's not about descriptions. Some legal systems allow "children" to be married, while others don't. Also, the age at which someone becomes an adult varies.

    None of that matters. Married is a state where you either are, or aren't. In the UK, that's a legal issue, and has been for a couple of hundred years. In some places, it may be a religious competency, but either way, either someone is married or they aren't. Children, here and in this age, aren't.
    It's not a legal issue I'm raising but a linguistic one. 'Unmarried' is not the same thing as not being married in some contexts.

    Jack is wearing fashionable clothes and george is wearing unfashionable clothes. Is a person in fashionable clothes looking at someone in unfashionable clothes? Imagine all the things Anne could be wearing, there are plenty that you would normally apply neither term to.

    You could say that the context here is that this is a logic puzzle, but that feels like a pretty weak argument to me.

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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    Quote Originally Posted by Smudger View Post
    It doesn't matter if A can see C or if she's on a corner or if they're in a straight line. As long as A can see B and B can see C, the question works
    LOL oh yeah

  17. #47
    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    Quote Originally Posted by EndlessWaves View Post
    ... 'Unmarried' is not the same thing as not being married in some contexts.
    Debatable, and also requires assumptions about the meaning of unmarried, rather than the obvious and literal meaning of "not married". Arguing the semantics of the word "unmarried" also doesn't change the logic of the puzzle, whereas your example does ...

    Quote Originally Posted by EndlessWaves View Post
    Jack is wearing fashionable clothes and george is wearing unfashionable clothes. Is a person in fashionable clothes looking at someone in unfashionable clothes? Imagine all the things Anne could be wearing, there are plenty that you would normally apply neither term to.
    Sorry, but this example is utterly spurious. Fashionable isn't even vaguely equivalent to married. Fashionable is entirely a matter of opinion (even on generally accepted "fashion", it is a collection of similar opinions and not an absolute state). Married is an absolute state: marriage is, to quote dictionary.com:

    The legally or formally recognized union of a man and a woman (or, in some jurisdictions, two people of the same sex) as partners in a relationship
    To be married your relationship has to be "legally or formally recognised". If it isn't you're not married. There really isn't a grey area here.

    Quote Originally Posted by EndlessWaves View Post
    You could say that the context here is that this is a logic puzzle, but that feels like a pretty weak argument to me.
    Don't see why? You're doing a logic puzzle, so the context being "this is a logic puzzle" is pretty self-evident. There isn't really any other context possible...

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    Re: Hexus IQ - A Problem Almost Everyone Gets Wrong (and an extra one for Maths guys)

    Quote Originally Posted by EndlessWaves View Post
    It's not a legal issue I'm raising but a linguistic one. 'Unmarried' is not the same thing as not being married in some contexts.

    Jack is wearing fashionable clothes and george is wearing unfashionable clothes. Is a person in fashionable clothes looking at someone in unfashionable clothes? Imagine all the things Anne could be wearing, there are plenty that you would normally apply neither term to.

    You could say that the context here is that this is a logic puzzle, but that feels like a pretty weak argument to me.
    Whether something Is fashionable or not is subjective, and who determines what's fashionable? Marriage, on the other hand, IS a legal matter. A variety of Marriage Acts going back to 1753, and various legal events before that, like the council of Trent, control who can get married and who can't, and to whom, and where, and when, and who must be present. That's England and Wales. Other UK jurisdictions are similar, but a bit different.

    And the state of marriage has legal implications too, ranging from power to take next-of-kin decisions to inheritance tax status. For any pedants out there, I'm not saying marriage is the ONLY thing to affect thoses statuses. Simply that marriage does.

    If you are eligible to marry, and complete the relevant steps, in the prescribed way, you are married .... untul such time as you taje the necessary legal steps to cease bring married. If there is a dispute over whether you are married or not, only a court can determine that. If you want to cease bring married, it's not a matter of will or desire, but you WILL remain married until either one party dies, or a court declares you to no longer be married.

    Unlike fashion, it's a binary condition. You are, if law says you are, and if it doesn't, you aren't. I can't see what "contexts" you mean. Either you are, or you aren't. Arguing about unmarried versus not married seems to me to be nothing but semantics, and because marriage is, by statute, a legal matter, it's a non-existant difference.

    It also misses the point of the thread, which wasn't about what the answer was, but rather, about how many people saw what was actually pretty obvious, and how many didn't and especially WHY they didn't. As several people have said, they didn't really read the question carefully enough, or didn't think the situation through carefully enough to see there only two routes in a decision map, and the outcome was the same either way.

    From a perspective of psychology, I find that quite interesting. If we assume 'people' make generally rational decisions, numerous times per hour, does it hold true if they don't consider the circumstances logically enough? You only have to study the very basics of marketing or advertising to appreciate that the vast majority of people, including those that got this right, are nowhere near as rational or logical as we think.

    That said, the fact that we aren't walking computers but somewhat irrational creatures may well be what lets us make decisions at least as much based on inductive reasoning as cold logic. Were that not the case, would Einstein ever have thought of general relativity, or Darwin of evolution? Or more recently, that Einstein's model was missing something, and that something was necesary to account for empirical data showing the universe's expansion is accelerating, not slowing as we thought?

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