Board 8 > Can you solve this VERY TRICKY Math Question????

(+) Yeah! (+)

Here's a math question that ought to freeze the moose in your hair!.

These questions vary in difficulty but could be difficult for any age group because the founder of these math questions said there's no shame in getting these wrong but just might make you think your math skills..

Let's see if anyone will get this right..

https://i.imgur.com/JEVI9Nz.jpg
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Positions after...
Day 1: 3m
Night 1: 1m
Day 2: 4m
Night 2: 2m
Day 3: 5m
Night 3: 3m
Day 4: 6m
Night 4: 4m
Day 5: 7m

It's a net 1m per day but the fact that the three metres forward come before the 2 metres back is hugely relevant.

That said, I am watching a Korean intellectual TV show right now so I am in logical rationalizing mode.
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BlueCrystalTear posted...

Positions after...
Day 1: 3m
Night 1: 1m
Day 2: 4m
Night 2: 2m
Day 3: 5m
Night 3: 3m
Day 4: 6m
Night 4: 4m
Day 5: 7m

It's a net 1m per day but the fact that the three metres forward come before the 2 metres back is hugely relevant.

That said, I am watching a Korean intellectual TV show right now so I am in logical rationalizing mode.

yeah you really turned up your critical thinking to 200% to solve that

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That last part was actually to see if ducky was reading these replies since I thought it would get his attention :P
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I love how "very tricky" math questions are just brain teasers I learned in first grade.

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The snail wants to be very efficient, so it will obviously choose to travel 3 daytimes before any nighttimes set it back. This will require some negotiation with the fundamental laws of the universe, but luckily those are arbitrary in mathematical problems. Thus, it takes the snail 3 days.

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I mean, if the snail is going to negotiate with the fundamental laws of the universe, it could just arbitrate for the length of its path being bent so it could traverse it in a single day.

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azuarc posted...

I love how "very tricky" math questions are just brain teasers I learned in first grade.

Still better than Facebook where you see boomers failing to understand the order of operations.

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the moose in my hair was unaffected

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waiting for the bs "real" answer being 3 because we're supposed to imply from the picture that it's a seesaw and that the reason the snail slides down every night would be because at the initial starting position the snail's weight on one end causes it to be going uphill but at the end of day 1 it's close enough to the center that it hardly slides back at all and then by the end of day 2 it's actually on the other side so it doesn't slide back at all (but the answer isn't somehow 2 because of course a question relying on such a bs gimmick would fail to recognize it'd now be sliding forward) and it completes it on day 3.

but yes the answer is 5 and i'm disappointed because i'm used to looking for bs like that in these "tricky" questions and instead it was just dumb

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oh, someone finally picked the wrong answer

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Can you solve this VERY TRICKY Math Question?????

Starting with a positive integer N, form a sequence of numbers as follows:

1. If the previous integer is even, divide by 2
2. If the previous integer is odd, multiply by 3 and add 1

Find N such that the sequence never reaches 1, or prove that such an N does not exist

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I misread it as slips back one meter not two and picked 3 and now I have brought dishonor to my family.

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LordoftheMorons posted...

Can you solve this VERY TRICKY Math Question?????

Starting with a positive integer N, form a sequence of numbers as follows:

1. If the previous integer is even, divide by 2
2. If the previous integer is odd, multiply by 3 and add 1
Find N such that the sequence never reaches 1, or prove that such an N does not exist

1: done
2: 2 - 1 done
3: 10 - 5 - 16 - 8 - 4 - 2 - 1 done
4: 4 - 2 - 1 done
5: contained in 3 done
6: 6 - 3 contained in 3 done
7: 7 - 22 - 11 - 34 - 17 - 52 - 26 - 13 - 40 - 20 - 10 - 5 contained in 5 done

QED, as numbers greater than 7 are fake. Similar argument proves the Goldbach conjectures

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LordoftheMorons posted...

Can you solve this VERY TRICKY Math Question?????

Starting with a positive integer N, form a sequence of numbers as follows:

1. If the previous integer is even, divide by 2
2. If the previous integer is odd, multiply by 3 and add 1
Find N such that the sequence never reaches 1, or prove that such an N does not exist

Somebody watches Veritasium.

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azuarc posted...

Somebody watches Veritasium.

Havent seen that!

Ive known about Collatz since high school I think? Its usually one of the go-to examples of seemingly really simple open math questions.

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Veritasium did one recently but there's a bunch of Youtubers who have done videos on the subject.

Also yeah it's probably something you learn in school depending on your teachers or if you're taking classes in the abstract side of math, though I don't think I ever learned it there personally.
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jokes on 7 of you as the answer was indeed 5 days
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