May 1, 2006
Sign Me Up for MIT!
I'm ready for Chomsky! A friend of the blog sends these by email:
The following test, dubbed a Cognitive Reflection Test, or CRT, consists of three questions.Each question has an intuitive--and--wrong response. Most people need some reflection to get the right answer. Even at MIT, most students got at least one answer wrong.
TEST:
1. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
2. If it takes five machines five minutes to make five widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?
3. In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half the lake?
Maybe we should give this test to elected officials, though, looking at both sides on gas prices, I think they'd be waaaay to hard.
Click "Continue Reading" to get the answers
CORRECT ANSWERS ARE:
1. 5 cents
2. 5 minutes
3. 47 days
Posted by jk at May 1, 2006 10:15 AM
1) 5 cents; 2) 5 minutes; 3) 47 days.
Posted by: johngalt at May 1, 2006 11:10 AM(I did have to think about #1 for half a minute.)
And, I'm glad to see your "correct answers" are, in fact, correct. :)
Posted by: johngalt at May 1, 2006 11:11 AM3 for 3 baby!
Posted by: AlexC at May 1, 2006 11:54 AMYeah, I think you give it away by mentioning that they require thought. Just throw them at people cold and I think you'd get more mistakes.
Posted by: jk at May 1, 2006 12:49 PM | What do you think? [4]