Comments on: IQ Test answer

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 14:50:12 +0000

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 )

By: Waqas

Waqas — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 14:13:37 +0000

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???

By: Barbara

Barbara — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:04:19 +0000

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.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 23:03:29 +0000

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.

By: johnny

johnny — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:05:41 +0000

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.

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 23:58:13 +0000

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?

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 03 May 2010 04:48:17 +0000

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.

By: J

Mon, 03 May 2010 04:37:36 +0000

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.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:16:28 +0000

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.

By: Doc

Doc — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:12:37 +0000

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.