The Time Everyone “Corrected” the World’s Smartest Woman (2015)

Re:The Time Everyone “Corrected” the World’s Smartest Woman ... by phaemon on Saturday August 04, 2018 @02:25PM (#17687916)

I'm not annoyed at all and added the smiley to try and soften my post. I got the Monty puzzle straight away (brought to my attention by Cecil Adams when I followed the SDMB) but I find it interesting to understand why so many intelligent folk get it wrong.

As for understanding; the stack exchange question on whether it's coincidence that the value of G is approximately pi squared is one of these things I bear in mind whenever I think I understand something. : )

Edit: and if I'm not mistaken, you once spent far more time than I would have the patience for explaining how this worked to a rather offensive young person. I admired your patience there. It was more than I had and had better results.

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Re:The Time Everyone “Corrected” the World’s Smartest Woman ... by ColinWright on Saturday August 04, 2018 @03:16PM (#17688087)

I think people get it wrong because they assume that with two options the odds are the same, and you can't know anything to make it otherwise. That's why it can help to explain about where the knowledge is.

One reason why g is close to pi^2 is related to the original idea to define the metre as being the pendulum length required to give a 1 second half-tick. If that's your definition of the metre then g is exactly pi^2. So in some sense it's not entirely coincidence. I should go and find the stack exchange discussion, but I don't have time just now.

And thank you for the compliment about my patience - I appreciate it.

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