this post was submitted on 06 May 2025
605 points (97.3% liked)

Science Memes

14509 readers
1117 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 hour ago

You can never answer this question correctly. If the correct answer is 25% there's a 50% chance you guess correctly but that would make the 25% wrong.

But if the answer is the 50% then it implies that 25% is correct which implies that 50% is wrong.

We reach a contradiction for both 25% and 50% making the correct answer to make the whole statement truthy 0%.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

I would think a b c d so 25% O he made a mistake znd forgot to take the bubble answer out. Now we only can pick between aord b c so it would be 33%

Seems my logic is wrong iff i read the rest

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Any answer is correct as long as you don't pick it at random. I'd choose (a) because I'm too lazy to read the other options

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

Great! I'll hand this to my daughter to annoy her co-students who struggle with probabilitiy ;-)

[–] [email protected] 25 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (2 children)

This can also be used a great example of proof by contradiction: There is no correct answer in the options. Proof: Assume there was a correct answer in the options. Then it must be either 25%, 50% or 60%. Now we make a case distinction.

(A) Assume it was 25. Then there would be two of four correct options yielding in a probability of 50%. Therefore 50 must be the correct answer. -> contradiction.

(B) Assume it was 50. Then there would be one of four correct options yielding in a probability of 25%. Therefore the answer is 25. -> contradiction.

(C) Assume it was 60%. Since only 0,1,2,3 or 4 of the answers can be correct the probability of choosing the right answer must be one of 0% 25% 50% 75% or 100%. -> contradiction.

Because of (A), (B) and (C), it cannot be 25, 50% or 60%. -> contradiction.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

Cheeky answer - the correct answer is a superposition of 25% and 50%, thus you answer it as a multiple choice question

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

©

because of copyright?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 hours ago

It was only the next day that I returned to this post realising that "this question" isn't even defined.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

0%

The only winning move is not to choose

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

Yeah option b should definitely be 0% for added fuckery

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

When in doubt, C it out.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago

I choose 75%

[–] [email protected] 10 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (2 children)

If you're choosing the answer, then there is 100% chance of being correct. Since none of these answers is 100%, the chance is 0%.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 19 hours ago

That logic would only hold if I wasn't dumb as rocks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 21 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 10 points 22 hours ago

Thanks for making me laugh all alone in my car before heading in to work. I wish I could give you an award. Cheers!

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is a conundrum wrapped in a turducken, swaddled in nesting dolls.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

lol chill out there buddy it is only self-referential once. maybe twice.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

I'm not certain, I think it's an infinite loop.

I.E. If the answer is 25%, you have a 50% chance, if the answer is 50%, you have a 25% chance, if the answer is 25%, you have a 50% chance...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

The only way out is to choose 60% to accept defeat

[–] [email protected] 7 points 21 hours ago

Haha, I think they should have made that option 0%, to further the paradox

[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 day ago (3 children)

The question is malformed and the correct answer isn't listed in the multiple choices. Therefore the correct answer is 0%

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 155 points 1 day ago (17 children)

B.

This is a multiple choice test. Once you eliminate three answers, you pick the fourth answer and move on to the next question. It can't be A, C, or D, for reasons that I understand. There's a non-zero chance that it's B for a reason that I don't understand.

If there is no correct answer, then there's no point hemming and hawing about it.

B. Final answer.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 day ago

I love this, it shows how being good at (multiple choice) tests doesn't mean you're good at the topic. I'm not good at tests because my country's education system priorities understanding and problem solving. That's why we fail at PISA

load more comments (16 replies)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's probably graded by a computer, and a) or d) is a fake answer, since the automated system doesn't support multiple right answers.

I'm going to go with 25% chance if picking random, and a 50% chance if picking between a) and d).
If it's graded by a human, the correct answer is f) + u)

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 93 points 1 day ago (11 children)

This is a self-referential paradox — a classic logic puzzle designed to be tricky. Let’s break it down:

Step-by-step analysis:

  1. How many choices? There are 4 possible answers, so if we pick one randomly, the chance of picking any specific one is 1 in 4 = 25%.

  2. How many answers say “25%”? Two.

  3. That means the probability of randomly choosing an answer that says “25%” is 2 in 4 = 50%.

  4. But if the correct answer is 50%, then only one option says “50%” — which is (c). So the probability of picking it at random is 1 in 4 = 25%, contradicting the idea that 50% is correct.

  5. If the correct answer is 25%, then two options say that — a and d. So the chance of picking one of those at random is 50%, not 25% — again a contradiction.

  6. Similarly, if 60% is correct (only one option), then the chance of picking it randomly is 25%, which again makes it incorrect.

Conclusion: Any choice leads to a contradiction. This is a self-referential paradox, meaning the question breaks logical consistency. There is no consistent correct answer.

[–] [email protected] 181 points 1 day ago (21 children)
[–] [email protected] 78 points 1 day ago (5 children)

haha yeah, I knew it at the "let's break it down:"
I was like.. I know this voice....

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago

"Conclusion:" was the final nail in the coffin

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago

Got it right though

load more comments (19 replies)
load more comments (10 replies)
[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 day ago (7 children)
load more comments (7 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What's the correct value if the answer is not picked at random but the test takers can choose freely?

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›