Annoying little riddle

paddy · 27 Jul 2011 at 20:57

I accidentally the whole melon, am I going to die (the melon was 40% fat)

DJ_Martin · 27 Jul 2011 at 21:04

Nitefly said:
Then again, I said 6/2(1+2)=1, so what do I know...

I still believe it is 1. Surely you would multiply out the brackets first leaving you with 6/6 why would you divide first?

Nitefly · 27 Jul 2011 at 21:07

DJmartin said:
I still believe it is 1. Surely you would multiply out the brackets first leaving you with 6/6 why would you divide first?

This was done to death in a thread that was active before you joined, but in short...

Technically you should divide before you multiply going from left to right..

However, anyone with any experience with maths would interpret the '/' as a denominator, and thus would multiply first.

It's just an epic troll question really.

bledd · 27 Jul 2011 at 21:16

The answer is 3, life's too short to worry about it

zenf · 27 Jul 2011 at 21:41

Mason- said:
No, read it again.

He said he's left with one WHOLE melon, notice the whole. -.-

if you have one melon and a half melon you have one WHOLE melon.

So you're saying 1.5 melons = 1 (WHOLE) melon, because that extra 0.5 melon doesn't matter.

So why can't you say 5 melons = 1 (WHOLE) melon because those extra 4 melons don't matter?

The answer is 3 tbh.

Mason- · 27 Jul 2011 at 22:56

zenf1 said:
So you're saying 1.5 melons = 1 (WHOLE) melon, because that extra 0.5 melon doesn't matter.

So why can't you say 5 melons = 1 (WHOLE) melon because those extra 4 melons don't matter?

The answer is 3 tbh.

No, if I say to you "How many whole melons do you have?" When you have 1 and a half melons. You would say one.

If I said "How many whole melons do you have?" When you have 5 you would say 5.

Nitefly · 27 Jul 2011 at 23:01

Mason- said:
No, if I say to you "How many whole melons do you have?" When you have 1 and a half melons. You would say one.

If I said "How many whole melons do you have?" When you have 5 you would say 5.

You have subtly rephrased it from the original question, which had the sentence 'he is left with one WHOLE melon'.

To say that someone is left with one whole melon is to imply that there is nothing else by the language used. It doesn't categorically exclude there being more than one melon, but that interpretation relies on a deceptive use of language in the first place, hence why I said you could pedantically argue it otherwise.

The only time you would be imprecise in the wording is when you are deliberately giving a vague answer or an estimate, which isn't implied because you are expected to give a correct and accurate answer. An example of a vague answer would be:

"How much money do you have left"
"A tenner*"

*£12.45

zenf · 27 Jul 2011 at 23:07

Mason- said:
No, if I say to you "How many whole melons do you have?" When you have 1 and a half melons. You would say one.

I would say one and a half. :confused:

Reaper 392 · 27 Jul 2011 at 23:11

zenf1 said:
I would say one and a half.

how can you have half one and a half whole melons?

Mason- · 27 Jul 2011 at 23:13

Nitefly said:
You have subtly rephrased it from the original question, which had the sentence 'he is left with one WHOLE melon'.

To say that someone is left with one whole melon is to imply that there is nothing else by the language used. It doesn't categorically exclude there being more than one melon, but that interpretation relies on a deceptive use of language in the first place, hence why I said you could pedantically argue it otherwise.

The only time you would be imprecise in the wording is when you are deliberately giving a vague answer or an estimate, which isn't implied because you are expected to give a correct and accurate answer. An example of a vague answer would be:

"How much money do you have left"
"A tenner*"

*£12.45

Nothing else? Refer to one of my earlier posts on the front page.

And also you are generalising money to classifiy all types of monies.

This specifically says how many WHOLE melons is he left with, it classifies a type of melon.

It's like me saying how many ten pound notes are you left with? You would say one.

Game set match I think.

[FnG]magnolia · 27 Jul 2011 at 23:22

Whole lot of spergin' going on when the answer is 3.

secretspy · 27 Jul 2011 at 23:41

I don't understand why you seem to get defensive about your answer when people say 3 is correct. Others have already said that yes 4 could be correct too but I don't believe thats how they intend the riddle to be perceived.

Generally most people would take it to mean he only has one whole melon left even though they haven't put "only"

The answer as per whomever wrote it is 3. end of. Why be so over analytical of a riddle? I'm sure there are more important things to do

Nitefly · 27 Jul 2011 at 23:51

Mason- said:
This specifically says how many WHOLE melons is he left with, it classifies a type of melon.

You just rephrased it again! It doesn't ask "how many whole melons are you left with?", it states "he is left with one WHOLE melon". Those are not the same thing, the latter is written as an implied answer to a different question, namely 'what is remaining in that person's possession?'.

I'm not sure why you are getting so defensive about it anyway, I have already said you could rightly argue 4 was a valid answer!

Mason- · 27 Jul 2011 at 23:55

Nitefly said:
You just rephrased it again! It doesn't ask "how many whole melons are you left with?", it states "he is left with one WHOLE melon". Those are not the same thing, the latter is written as an implied answer to a different question, namely 'what is remaining in that person's possession?'.

I'm not sure why you are getting so defensive about it anyway, I have already said you could rightly argue 4 was a valid answer!

Well then why use that awful example which I proved to be bad through the reasoning.

Nitefly · 27 Jul 2011 at 23:59

Mason- said:
Well then why use that awful example which I proved to be bad through the reasoning.

Personally I don't think you did. I'm not going to get hung up on it though and announce that your own reasoning and examples are 'awful'.

The forum can make its mind up

Mason- · 28 Jul 2011 at 00:03

Well you make that example to disprove my point relating to the riddle which I show isn't related because it actually backs up my argument rather than yours? =/

Nitefly · 28 Jul 2011 at 00:09

Mason- said:
Well you make that example to disprove my point relating to the riddle which I show isn't related because it actually backs up my argument rather than yours? =/

Ugh, if I must continue

You said this:

Mason- said:
This specifically says how many WHOLE melons is he left with, it classifies a type of melon.

Well, it could do, but that's not the most obvious interpretation of the sentence. The most natural way of reading it (which is the way that most people in this thread have read it) is that whatever that person is left with is 'one whole melon' in total.

Furthermore, in your original post, you have typed WHOLE in capital letters. Was such emphasis placed on that word when your friend asked you this question...? If so, it makes 4 a more acceptable answer, but still not the one which most naturally flows from the language used.

[FnG]magnolia · 28 Jul 2011 at 00:13

Too much Rainman going on here. Simmer down.

ntg · 28 Jul 2011 at 00:31

Mason- said:
How many melons did he take to town?

Over 9,000

..someone had to say it..

Vonhelmet · 28 Jul 2011 at 00:38

weringo said:
It's ambiguous.

When writing out a cheque you don't put "one hundred pounds," you put "one hundred pounds only."

So it could be either.

Yep. Otherwise some mentalist will come along and scrawl "And one half melon" after the "pounds" bit.