xkcd

8908 readers

168 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

293

xkcd #2966: Exam Numbers (xkcd.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

alt text:

Calligraphy exam: Write down the number 37, spelled out, nicely.

explananation: https://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2966:_Exam_Numbers

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago (3 children)

The game theory one is easy. Put down 999,999,999,999 factorial. Then everyone got it wrong, and the curve will reflect that.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Basically, write down the biggest number you can think of

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

Only if it's "10 more" in the sense that anything bigger than that is also accepted. If you need to hit 57, because the average is 47, then yeah, good luck.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

The goal in the upstream comment wasn't to get the answer right for you, it's to skew the average so badly that nobody gets it right, and the bell curve adjusts accordingly for everyone.

Not a bad strategy to be honest

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's why it's always between 1 and 100. Never seen one without an upper and lower bound.

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

Write NaN to destroy your classmates

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

sqrt(-1)

[–] dream_weasel 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Joke is on you, I wrote Tree(Tree(3))

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

My strategy is still working, though, and you've now (all but) guaranteed that my answer is the closest to the correct answer.