There is one of those ubiquitous “IQ” test farces from one of the internet and phone carriers, which has the following question on it:
”What word best completes the following series:
ball, beach, circle, ______, eucharist.
The answers were (not exactly, but something along the lines of):
a) bottle
b) dusk
c) dough
d) summer
There are many things to be aware of when doing these kinds of “tests.” First is that they are a scam to get you to give them your cell phone number, so they can then spam you with tons of crap you are not interested in.
Another is that there are many possible ways to look at things, and nobody has them all covered. Someone may discover a much more interesting algorithm than the one they want you to see.
All that being said, what they are probably looking for is “dough.”
Why?
First I thought they were going for the amount of letters in each term, which would logically suggest that a seven-letter answer be the right one. But there are no seven-letter answers. Bummer.
Then I thought I’d go with the fact that they are alphabetized, and a d-word would fit right in. But there are two d-words. So then I thought maybe it had something to do with the length of the d-words. Nah.
Notice something else about all the words? Eventually I noticed that the second letter of each word was a vowel, and they were in a, e, i, _, u order (in other words, alphabetized.) The missing vowel was “o.”
That’s why I think the answer is “dough.”
I didn’t make up the question, so don’t hold me to this. These “IQ tests” have no value, except to make you think (which isn’t so bad). But they hold no indication of your intelligence whatsoever, if you define “intelligence” as something more than the ability to waste your time seeing if you know some trivial baloney.
If the ability to waste your time seeing if you know some trivial baloney really meant something, I’d be freakin’ Einstein. Nah, it doesn’t mean anything. But sometimes it’s fun.
I think you are right. That’s what I came up with! Thanks!
1) it’s Bologna :-) 2) I don’t remember the choices I had, but if you follow your logic with the choices you provided, then “bottle” would also work, but I really don’t think bottle was one of my options, therefore I really don’t think it was one of yours, ergo, I think your logic was right; just when you use your above information to provide a clearer understanding of how you came to your conclusion, you contradict yourself :-) but like you said, does it really matter?
Professor Homunculus sez:
Chris, I see what you’re getting at. I wasn’t clear enough – what I meant is that first you look at the first letter of each word, and make sure it is alphabetized. That would mean that it would have to be a word that started with D.
But that is not enough, since there are two words that begin with D. You have to look at the second letter and find a pattern for them, too. Since they are not alphabetized, I went with the pattern of the alphabetized vowels.
You could also look at it like this – the first letters are alphabetized, the second letters are all vowels. Which vowel is missing? An o is missing, so that would make the missing word, “dough.”
There may be some more esoteric, but more elegant solution than this. If anyone finds one, please let me know. This also points out a problem with things like “intelligence tests.” Although they are often rigorously created, they still have an element of subjectivity, because the creators of them cannot have exhausted all the possibilities.
I have some anecdotes about just such situations, which I’ll post sometime in the future. In the meantime,
Pachalafaka!
you are right the other option did start with a “d” and it was dusk; so your answer is right. good for you!
how bout BOTTLE?
Professor Homunculus sez:
See my response to Chris’s comment, above.
I came up with “dough” too…
but this alphabetical business never occurred to me.
I looked at the series as an associative relationship dealing with objects in different forms of themselves. Like a circle to a ball (or sphere). I skipped “beach” because in real IQ test questions, sometimes extraneous information is added to muddle the valuable information, forcing the test-taker to sift out the pertinent information (as a side note, it was also because “beach” totally had nothing to do with anything except “ball”. And that’s only because a ball is often found on a beach)
I decided “beach” was extraneous, so I then focused on the circle-to-ball relation ship. I knew that bread is a huge part of the eucharist. Bread is another form of dough, much like a sphere (or ball) is another form of a circle.
So, there we have it. Two sides of a coin both coming to the same answer to a ridiculous scam IQ test.
The responses to chose from for this question were: Dusk, Dough, BEAGLE, and Summer. So yes, your logic remains undisturbed. After careening through thought processes resembling the above, I finally collapsed under the weight of ambiguity and my own indecision. I googled the question and found this beautiful bevy of information.
On a side note, I did think that this was an oddly multi-layered and complex question for a cell scam. A sweet little puzzle well worth the attention you and your posting peers have given it here. As you said: “These ‘IQ tests’ have no value, except to make you think (which isn’t so bad).” Not bad at all. This little thinker was well worth the jaunt down scam ally.
Your reasoning is sound but let me propose an alternative. The alphabetical order in the second letter is also maintained by selecting ‘dusk’, as you pointed out. However, ‘dusk’ provides a symmetry in the pattern of second letters with the pattern of first letters. That is, both sets of letters remain alphabetical with one repeated letter on each side, b-b-c-d-e and a-e-i-u-u. It might not be as satisfying as seeing the familiar a-e-i-o-u pattern but it ties the algorithm together for both the first and second letters.
You know, I agree with the logic you provided, but there is also another alternative that seems to me to be a little bit more complicated than yours. This isn’t to say that you’re not right, but let me show why I answered with the choice “summer”.
Since the question states “Which word best completes the following series” (key word being “series”), I thought that it suggests that the words aren’t in some random order, but there is some kind of reasoning behind why the words are set the way they are. To be more explicit, each word that follows the previous has some sort of connection to the one previous and the one that comes after, and the last word in a series is either a culmination of the whole series or merely just the end of the series.
To make my argument more specific to this puzzle, the word “ball” has the vowel “a” in it. The word “beach” has both the vowel “a” and the vowel “e” in it. The next word “circle” has the vowel “e”. The next space is blank. After the blank space comes the word “eucharist”. That last word has a “build-up” of all the vowels in the series so far; the vowels “a”, “e”, and “i”. The only vowel that the other words do not have in the series is the vowel “u”.
The word “bottle” doesn’t fit because there is no “o” in the series, and also because there is no “o” in “eucharist” aka the culmination of the series.
The word “dusk” would fit if you were to just look at the word “eucharist”, since not only are they in order of one another, but “dusk” introduces the letter “u” into the series which explains why there’s a “u” in the last word (“eucharist”), but the word that precedes it (“circle”) shares no vowel connection with “dusk”, so that’s out as well.
Next comes “dough”, which shares the same reason behind fitting as “dusk” does, but it doesn’t fit because: one, there is no “o” in the series, and two, it also does not share a vowel connection with “circle”.
That leaves us our fourth choice “summer”. This one introduces the vowel “u” into the series, and it shares the vowel “e” with “circle”. It doesn’t introduce any other vowels that aren’t already in the series, and it follows all the rules of the series.
I hope that I was clear in describing my reasoning, but if there are to be any questions, please do let me know, and I hope that I have made some of you wonder at the many possibilities some of these IQ questions could have if you just “think outside of the box”…..;)
Professor Homunculus sez:
Erik,
I really like that solution. Yes, it is more complicated, and I must say I prefer that which is simpler, but I think it’s valid. I also think this is a perfect case of where a “standardized test” would only take one of the answers as correct, which, to me, shows a lack of IQ on the part of the people who design those things
In general, I believe that Occam’s Razor should decide which is more “elegant,” but not which is more or less valid.
Thanks for your thoughtful input,
- Prof. H.
Great post! Thank you.
Bottle has an O as the second letter as well…
Professor Homunculus sez:
Cory,
Yes, it does. But maybe you missed the point – the second letter is not the only criterion. First the first letters are alphabetized, then second letters.
If only the second letters counted, then there wouldn’t be a good puzzle, because, as you noticed, there could be two answers. The Idea is to be able to see which answer fits best, and in this puzzle, there is clearly one winner, if you look at all the criteria.
OK, let me start off by saying that your theory is good, but wrong. Erik was right because summer fits all of the criteria… dough doesn’t. It’s just the main intelligence itself that tells which on is right, dough, or summer. Although, I see where you were going with the whole dough thing. As I said at the beginning, your theory is good, but wrong. Please tell me your thought on this question, maybe I can think about it, but for now, summer is the correct answer for the stupid scam IQ question. [As for me it is, as of you, just think about it.]
Sincerely
-Pro. W.
Hmmm. I can’t say I agree. I still think both answers are valid, and either one could be considered “best,” depending on which criteria you apply. Neither answer fits all the criteria. Summer doesn’t fit the criteria that makes dough work, and vice-versa.
How we decide which set of criteria fits best is a little harder to decide. I’d apply Occam’s Razor, but someone else may have a better reason for deciding on the more complicated criteria.
If you can give us a logical reason to pick one set of criteria over the other, it would be helpful. Till then I can’t see any reason to pick summer as the “correct” answer. It certainly is one of the answers that may be correct, though.
Can you please explain what you mean by “main intelligence?” I am not a logician, or particularly brainy, so I’m not up on all the details. I’m totally open to new explanations.
OK, I have to admit, like everybody else that doesn’t work for that company, it’s a stupid scam so people have your cell so they can call you with a whole bunch of spam waiting to happen. If you disagree or you’re interested in this theory, please, visit my website at (website not listed because it is simply a plagiarism of this original post).
I agree and disagree with you, Brian. You were right when you said the criteria doesn’t complete dough, but it works perfectly fine with summer.
The criteria I explained in detail on in my post fit exactly with dough, and only dough
The criteria I Erik explained for summer fit exactly with summer, and only summer.
What, exactly makes one better than the other? Please explain.
Brian
What a crazy dialogue! Folks are not reading through the responses and there is a great deal of repetition.
It isn’t helpful to simply state a point of view is more valid than another or more “right” or “wrong.”
I appreciate the mulitple viewpoints. My question is this: does it always have to do with the number of letters or the pattern of the letters? What about implications of word meanings? To me, dough made better sense because it is part of the Eucharist, and therefore related to this. Beach and ball have a natural relationship, too. I just wasn’t entirely sure how “circle” fit into the pattern ~ other than it was in the middle.
Doc,
Amen, brother! I was getting a little frustrated with the plethora of opinion and lack of input.
To your question: I really don’t know if it’s about the letters or the context. That’s a great point. There can be many, many ways to think about this.
I always feel a little cheated by “IQ” questions like this. They present it as though there is some “best” answer, but nowhere do they provide it to check your own answer against, nor any reasoning they might have for it.
On the other hand, I love open-ended questions that make you think. So I take this one as open-ended, and I seriously doubt that there is an authoritative solution.
Actually, I think there cannot be one. The parameters have not been set.
One thing I like about math is that, in general, the parameters have been very clearly establishes (to the best of our human abilities, so far, at any rate.). The axioms are clear, and everything follows from them (without getting into Goedel).
In base 10, 2+2=4, all other things being equal.
But is @ + & = 2, 5, or H? Which answer is best? It’s a nonsense question unless some criteria for an answer are given. We can contemplate it all day. It’s like a Zen koan.
“What is the sound of one hand clapping? I want the best answer, now, or you fail!” Nah, Zen doesn’t work that way (does it?)
Your approach is refreshing. Who says it has to be about the letters? I was even thinking that “dough” has four letters that have the sound of one vowel, so maybe all four letters are considered vowels in this case. Maybe that could have something to do with it. The sky’s the limit.
The only thing that can stop us from thinking is when we think we have the final answer. Then we have come to the end of thought. How sad.
Thanks so much for your comment, Dock.
I looked at it a little differently, though I considered alphabet-related patterns at first.
I thought the objects in the series might be (roughly) following a geometric pattern: Dot, Dash, Dot, Dash, Dot. So I chose Beagle, a dog with a long body, long snout.
It’s a little silly and, on an IQ test, would probably be considered oversimplified, low-scoring (or even personally biased? since I read Eucharist as the circular wafer, not the body of Christ? and Beach as the flat segment I see from the ground, not the ragged entirety?) thinking.
But. That’s the way I saw it. And I think I can reasonably defend my answer. So. I’m satisfied with it.
It works for me. I don’t know how anyone can say than any answer is really “best.” It all seems pretty subjective to me. It should be used as an exercise, not a test, I think.
Anyway, thanks for your comment.
There is yet another possibility, that I used when I took the quiz. The word BEACH has exactly 2 letters in common with its predecessor BALL; also CIRCLE has exactly 2 in common with its predecessor BEACH. (Note how I’m only talking about letters “with multiplicities” counted, so each word is a multiset of letters rather than just a set.) Of the four available, the only completion choice that preserves this property all the way across is BEAGLE, which has just L and E in common with CIRCLE, and then EUCHARIST has only E and A in common with BEAGLE. DOUGH and DUSK share none with CIRCLE, while SUMMER has four in common with EUCHARIST.
Oh well, I’m certainly not going to find out my quiz score from those scammers. Did anyone else happen to do so? If so, what was your answer on this question?
The answer IMHO is Bottle. The next word in the series contains just two letters from the previous word….
ball, beach, circle, ______, eucharist….. ball – BeAch – CirClE – bottLE – EucharisT.
Circle has two C’s but who cares. This is a better solution than AEIOU in MHO.
Johnny,
I like it, except for the “who cares” part. I don’t think you can disqualify a discrepancy just because it doesn’t fit your hypothesis. But it’s still a great thought.
Doc previously wrote: To me,dough made better sense because it is part of the Eucharist,and therefore related to this. Beach and ball have a natural relationship,too. I just wasn’t entirely sure how “circle”fit into the pattern ~ other than it was in the middle.
My thought is the beach ball and the eucharist made of dough all are cicular and that is where circle come to play.
A simple IQ test….
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20.
If u r genious tell me wat is mistake???
I don’t know – maybe your spelling? Lol.
Sorry, no geniuses here. Any out there want to take a crack at it?
Brian (a.k.a. Professor Homunculus at MathMojo.com )