this post was submitted on 06 May 2025
606 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
 
(page 3) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] gnutrino 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

This only produces a paradox if you fall for the usual fallacy that "at random" necessarily means "with uniform probability".

For example, I would pick an answer at random by rolling a fair cubic die and picking a) if it rolls a 1, b) on a 2, d) on a 3 or c) otherwise so for me the answer is c) 50%.

However, as it specifies that you are to pick at random the existence, uniqueness and value of the correct answer depends on the specific distribution you choose.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

It's annoying that 25% appears twice. How about these answers:

a) 100%

b) 75%

c) 50%

d) 0%

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

100 **** percent, i'm all in!

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

I argue it's still 25%, because the answer is either a,b,c, or d, you can only choose 1, regardless of the possible answer having two slots.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yup. And it says pick at random. Not apply a bunch of bullshit self mastubatory lines of thinking. Ultimately, 1 of those answers are keyed as correct, 3 are not. It's 25% if you pick at random. If you're applying a bunch of logic into it you're no longer following the parameters anyway.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

You can just say "I don't understand probability (or the word 'if')" next time and save a whole bunch of effort.

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

Since two of them are the same, you have a 50% chance of picking something that is 33% of the possible answers. The other two, you have 25% chance of picking something that us 33% of the possible answers.

So 50%33% + 2 (33%*25%)= 33%

So your chances of being right is 33% cause there is effectively 3 choices.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

But that one answer has a 33% larger possibility of being chosen by random, than the remaining two.

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

I covered that by multiplying it by 50% as it represents 50% of the choices.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (4 children)

There is absolutely no way it is 60%. Because you can never have 60% chances of picking anything particular when there are only 4 choices. Knowing this, the answer is either 25% or 50%. Two effective choices, so the answer is C, 50%.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

There's a reason I dropped probability at school.

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

B) 60% because I'm generally very lucky.

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

Can I take a 50/50 joker first?

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

Selecting not at random, A xor D must be correct, because the answer key can only have one correct answer so even duplicate right answers must also be wrong.

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

It asked for whether the answer is correct not whether it lines up with the answer sheet.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›