Re: BrainBashers Common Answers November 2003: Results.

Hi All,

Hopefully this is not a repeat of a previous discussion, but has
anyone analyzed why certain answers are more common than others?
Sometimes for no apparent reason?


Some of the answers, to my mind, are pretty obviously going to be the
most common. For example, questions in the format:

Name one of the following:
Up or Down/In or Out/Top or Bottom/Good or Bad/Black or White/etc.

To me, it seems that one would select the first answer that sounds
correct in everyday speech. I would always use the phrase 'Top or
Bottom' as opposed to 'Bottom or Top', therefore I selected 'Top' as
the answer to question 2. The same applies to the other examples I
give - even if the order they appear in the question is 'reversed', I
will always select the first one as they appear above.


Questions in the format "Name a planet in the solar system" appear to
have several selection criteria going on here. Initially, I thought of
proximity to where I am, so the Earth was an obvious answer. But if I
had been asked to name, say, 4 planets I would not necessarily use
that criteria exclusively (mostly because I don't know which are the 4
closest planets off the top of my head!). I immediately thought of
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. These were based not on proximity, but on
other factors like their size (Jupiter), or distinguishing features
like color (Mars) and rings (Saturn).


Other answers are not so obvious, though. For the question 'Name part
of the face', I answered 'Nose', which was indeed the top answer with
almost 67% of the votes. Even now I'm not sure why I picked 'Nose'
(pardon the pun :-) over, say, 'Eyes' or 'Mouth'. It seemed like a
even call between those answers at the time, but for some reason I
selected the same answer as 67% of everyone else. I wonder why that
is? Did everyone else just pick this answer on a hunch? Or did they
actually believe that 'Nose' was more likely to appear than 'Eyes' or
'Mouth'?


Baz.



On Tue, 2 Dec 2003 00:22:17 -0000, "Kevin Stone
[www.brainbashers.com]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>BrainBashers Common Answers November 2003: Results:
>
>www.brainbashers.com/common
>
>Duane Cahill                  1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
>Tim Sant                      1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
>Catherine Rogers              1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
>Joseph Misko                  1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
>Susan Smith-Patterson         1   1   1   1   1   1   2   1   1   1
>Jenn Gephart                  1   1   1   1   1   1   2   1   1   1
>Karla Westerholm              1   1   1   1   1   1   2   1   1   1
>Randal Whiddon                1   1   1   1   1   1   1   2   1   1
>Wendy Kreis                   1   1   1   1   1   1   2   2   1   1
>Eric Techel                   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   2
>Jessica Hope Shearer          1   1   2   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
>Steve Smith                   1   1   2   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
>Desiree Rios                  1   1   2   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
>Adam Kite                     1   1   1   1   1   1   1   2   1   2
>Kevin Fox                     1   1   1   1   1   1   1   2   1   2
>Julian Stone                  1   1   1   1   1   1   1   2   1   2
>Omar Noblett                  1   1   2   1   1   1   1   2   1   1
>Max Chamberlain               2   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
>Chris Philpot                 2   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
>Jimmie James                  2   1   1   1   1   1   2   1   1   1
>
>Q1. Name an animal which has five letters.
>1    HORSE                                    225
>2    TIGER                                    117
>3    ZEBRA                                    48
>4    SNAKE                                    39
>5    MOUSE                                    35
>6    SHEEP                                    24
>7    CAMEL                                    18
>8    PUPPY                                    12
>9    KOALA                                    9
>10   SKUNK                                    8
>
>Q2. Name either Bottom or Top.
>1    TOP                                      451
>2    BOTTOM                                   157
>
>Q3. Name a planet in the solar system
>1    EARTH                                    278
>2    MARS                                     175
>3    PLUTO                                    48
>4    JUPITER                                  30
>5    SATURN                                   28
>6    VENUS                                    16
>7    URANUS                                   15
>8    MERCURY                                  14
>9    NEPTUNE                                  8
>10   MOON                                     4
>
>Q4. Name a part of the face.
>1    NOSE                                     411
>2    EYE                                      106
>3    MOUTH                                    62
>4    LIPS                                     12
>5    CHEEK                                    9
>6    EAR                                      6
>7    CHIN                                     6
>8    JAW                                      2
>9    TEMPLE                                   1
>10   SMILE                                    1
>
>Q5. Name a time you eat lunch [in the form n.nn].
>1    12.00                                    364
>2    1.00                                     82
>3    12.30                                    63
>4    11.30                                    18
>5    1.30                                     15
>6    11.00                                    11
>7    11.45                                    7
>8    12.15                                    6
>9    2.00                                     5
>10   1.15                                     4
>
>Q6. Name a board game.
>1    MONOPOLY                                 357
>2    CHESS                                    114
>3    CHECKERS                                 41
>4    SCRABBLE                                 28
>5    CLUEDO                                   14
>6    SORRY                                    13
>7    LIFE                                     7
>8    TRIVIAL PURSUIT                          6
>9    SNAKES AND LADDERS                       6
>10   LUDO                                     5
>
>Q7. Name a musical instrument you blow through to play a tune.
>1    TRUMPET                                  224
>2    FLUTE                                    215
>3    SAXOPHONE                                48
>4    CLARINET                                 40
>5    TUBA                                     20
>6    HORN                                     19
>7    RECORDER                                 16
>8    TROMBONE                                 10
>9    HARMONICA                                8
>10   OBOE                                     6
>
>Q8. Name a leap year.
>1    2004                                     231
>2    2000                                     192
>3    2001                                     19
>4    1996                                     14
>5    1998                                     11
>6    1994                                     11
>7    2002                                     10
>8    1999                                     10
>9    1984                                     8
>10   1992                                     7
>
>Q9. Name a film starring Keanu Reeves
>1    MATRIX                                   366
>2    SPEED                                    76
>3    BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE         13
>4    HARD BALL                                11
>5    POINT BREAK                              9
>6    MATRIX RELOADED                          9
>7    SUPERMAN                                 8
>8    SWEET NOVEMBER                           4
>9    CHAIN REACTION                           2
>10   A WALK IN THE CLOUDS                     2
>
>Q10. Name a flavour of ice cream.
>1    VANILLA                                  299
>2    CHOCOLATE                                215
>3    STRAWBERRY                               39
>4    COOKIE DOUGH                             9
>5    ROCKY ROAD                               7
>6    COFFEE                                   6
>7    CHOCOLATE CHIP                           6
>8    MINT-CHOC CHIP                           4
>9    MINT                                     3
>10   COOKIES AND CREAM                        3
>