3 ms·

So, the judges don't know where it was originally? They have to guess as well, and that becomes the correct answer? That seems like a terrible way to judge the

• dkokelley 19y ago
  It's the same as the "guess how many jelly beans are in the jar" contests with a baseball in the middle. Even if you mathematically figured out how many should be in there, you'll still be wrong. (I actually won a jar of skittles that wasn't loaded by mathematically estimating the number of skittles. I wonder if this counts as a non-computer system that I hacked for the YC funding application.)
  • cdr 19y ago
    There were a lot of "guess the number of X in a jar" type contests when I was in primary school. I think I won nearly every single one, because I was (one of?) the the only one(s) estimating mathematically. It always seemed pretty obvious to me. Even with a baseball in the middle (assuming you know there's a baseball in the middle), it's not impossible to estimate, and your guess is still going to be better than someone who didn't try.
    • dkokelley 19y ago
      That's the thing. You're not supposed to know if there's a baseball in there. I guess going at it from a mathematical point of view (regardless of tricks) will give you an advantage over a kid guessing something like "a million" or almost any other random number.