Pop quiz!

[Katy Jane]

:twisted:

How well do you know me? (http://www.quizyourfriends.com/yourquiz_IM.php?quizname=040809151218-KatyJane)

I saw this posted on another forum and thought it was fun. :D

[Alexia]

I got 40 points... :cry: But i dont really know you well enough to know the answers to some of those :wink: Ironically, i got the easier ones wrong!

[NAHTMMM]

I demand a recount!

[Hotaru]

Bah, I was higher than Alexia at least.

[Katy Jane]

NAH has made an appeal, and I have determained that he did earn a 100% score (happy now :p ;) )

[NAHTMMM]

Yes, thank you! :D

[catalina_marina]

However, he still didn't get it. :twisted:

So I am the non-boyfriend with the highest score, eh? Neat. :D

[catalina_marina]

How well do you know me? (http://www.quizyourfriends.com/yourquiz_IM.php?quizname=040810145422-How~p20well~p20do~p20you~p20know~p20catalina_marin a~p3F) :mrgreen:

[Hotaru]

Cat, that last question was a trick! It was a trick!

:cry:

I should've had 90.

[Nic Corelli]

It sure was. Just like question #5, and several others.

She`s EVIL, I tell ya! :twisted:

[catalina_marina]

The last question was not a trick. If you had been paying attention you would have known the right answer. But no, you people only hear what you want to hear. :roll:

This to deilusionise you all. Well, it's an attempt anyway. :wink:

[Nic Corelli]

Heeheehee! The Nits Quiz! :twisted:

I made a Quiz for you! Take my Quiz! (http://www.quizyourfriends.com/yourquiz_IM.php?quizname=040810183419-How~p20well~p20do~p20you~p20know~p20Nitsy~p3F) and then Check out the Scoreboard! (http://www.quizyourfriends.com/scoreboard.php?quizname=040810183419-How~p20well~p20do~p20you~p20know~p20Nitsy~p3F)


The last question was not a trick. If you had been paying attention you would have known the right answer. But no, you people only hear what you want to hear. :roll:


Cat sounds strangely like a disgruntled high school teacher angry at her students, :mrgreen:

[NAHTMMM]

However, he still didn't get it. :twisted:

My answer was quite correct within the context provided. :roll:

[Katy Jane]

However, he still didn't get it. :twisted:

My answer was quite correct within the context provided. :roll:

Yes, i have decided that question 5 has two correct answers. :p

[Nic Corelli]

Oooh, NAH took my quiz, and got 7 out of 10 questions correct! :twisted:

Where did you go wrong, NAH? :D

[NAHTMMM]

Not sure.


I do know I missed the capital question.

[Nic Corelli]

What, Novi Zagreb? :mrgreen:


BTW, I have just taken KJ`s quiz and I got 6 out of 10! Woohoo!

:twisted:

[NAHTMMM]

No, I got that one right. :twisted: It was a no-brainer as far as I was concerned!

[Katy Jane]

What, Novi Zagreb? :mrgreen:


BTW, I have just taken KJ`s quiz and I got 6 out of 10! Woohoo!

:twisted:

Actualy, you got 7 out of 10, you had the other right answer for number 5. ;)

[Nic Corelli]

Wheee!

Then what capital question are you talking about, NAH? :twisted:

[Katy Jane]

The Assyria one i would assume, i got that one wrong too. :p

[NAHTMMM]

You threw in a question about the capital of a certain country that is probably one of those silly "Piles of Sand" and rhymes with "Siberia"... :roll: :P

[Nic Corelli]

Oh, that. I forgot about that. Hee hee :twisted: Well, that`s a relevant historical information! :mrgreen:

[Alexia]

Oooh, NAH took my quiz, and got 7 out of 10 questions correct!

Somehow...so did I :mrgreen:

[Michiel]

KJ's quiz: 20/100.

And you can't fool me. This board, the internet, this reality, is merely an illusion.

[Michiel]

I took the other two quizzes too. 50 points on both.

Here's my quiz (http://www.quizyourfriends.com/yourquiz_IM.php?quizname=040811055729-How~p20well~p20do~p20you~p20know~p20Michiel~p3F). Have fun. :)

[Alexia]

GEEZ! A measly 10 point on yours...and the one i got right was the 10011000101001 one! (Yes...a guess :wink: ) You'd have thought i might have accidently stubbled across more right answers than that!

[Michiel]

Did you guess all of them? :)

[Alexia]

Yeah :wink: Well mostly! I thought I knew some..apparently not! Would you beleive I pressed the wrong button on a couple? No? Really? Darn... :wink:

How about mine? (http://www.quizyourfriends.com/yourquiz_IM.php?quizname=040811062857-Alexia)

[Michiel]

Whoohoo! 20/100. And yup. I guessed a lot of them, except for the weapon of choice one. I've seen your site. ;)

[Opium]

Yes, I did fail miserably on Katy Jane's quiz, darn "all of above" answers...

But look! Now I havea quiz for all of you to take!

http://www.quizyourfriends.com/takequiz.php?quizname=040811082005-Do~p20You~p20Know~p20Opium~p3F

[Alexia]

Woohoo, 1/2 marks :wink: I got the best actor in one because that is the one I like nest :mrgreen: I love him!

[catalina_marina]

However, he still didn't get it. :twisted:

My answer was quite correct within the context provided. :roll:

Yes, i have decided that question 5 has two correct answers. :p
Whoa! NAH didn't even know what species you are? This is bad. This is very very bad. :roll:

[Katy Jane]

However, he still didn't get it. :twisted:

My answer was quite correct within the context provided. :roll:

Yes, i have decided that question 5 has two correct answers. :p
Whoa! NAH didn't even know what species you are? This is bad. This is very very bad. :roll:

As i said, i have determained that his answer is correct. :p

[Ginga]

Yes, I did fail miserably on Katy Jane's quiz, darn "all of above" answers...

But look! Now I havea quiz for all of you to take!

http://www.quizyourfriends.com/takequiz.php?quizname=040811082005-Do~p20You~p20Know~p20Opium~p3F

*tapes a piece of paper with "100" written on it over my actual score and coughs*

...*has created a quiz now. :P*

http://www.quizyourfriends.com/yourquiz_IM.php?quizname=040812014729-Quizness~p3F

[Opium]

Woohoo! I got 40 points! yay me!


For some reason, I think AIM or other IM chat is needed to get really good scores...

[Alexia]

^and perhaps lets crazy questions :wink: Or maybe less crazy people taking the quizes...and creating the quizes. Either way, neither will happen :mrgreen:

[Ginga]

I took the other two quizzes too. 50 points on both.

Here's my quiz (http://www.quizyourfriends.com/yourquiz_IM.php?quizname=040811055729-How~p20well~p20do~p20you~p20know~p20Michiel~p3F). Have fun. :)

Haha, I guess 14 on that last one only because it's my lucky number. XD

[Michiel]

You mean no one actually knew/calculated that last one? Cat?

[PointyHairedJedi]

My scores -
KJ: 70
catalina: 60
Nic: 80
Michiel: 20
Alexia: 30
Opium: 30
Fuyu: 20

So yeah, I pretty much suck at remembering things.

EDIT: And I made one too, just for the heck of it. Link (http://www01.quizyourfriends.com/yourquiz.php?quizname=040812105106-How~p20well~p20do~p20you~p20know~p20Pointy~p3F&email=real_skywalker@hotmail.com&c=1&a=01).

[catalina_marina]

You mean no one actually knew/calculated that last one? Cat?
Of course I did. You should have put 7 in there though. At first I hadn't noticed you only had two of those things. :roll:

[catalina_marina]

What the-- Jedi! Question one is rigged! :evil:

[Michiel]

You mean no one actually knew/calculated that last one? Cat?
Of course I did. You should have put 7 in there though. At first I hadn't noticed you only had two of those things. :roll:

So it's 7 tries with 3 balls, I assume? How does that work, anyway? My first guess was binary search until you have two balls left, but that proved not to be optimal.

[catalina_marina]

Actuelly, it's 7 if you have an infinite number of balls. Or just a large enough one. Like 7, for example. :wink:

[Michiel]

Ah. That's binary search. Assume it breaks at floor 100. You have the following tries:

50
75
88
94
97
99
100

Yup, that's 7 tries. Any idea how you would go about it if you had, say, 4 balls?

Or: More than two balls and not enough balls for a binary search?

[Alexia]

AAAAARRRRRRRRRG! Pain...my head...why did i read that? ::explodes:: :shock:

[Ginga]

Fuyu: 20

I would like to mention that so far, PHJ is the ONLY person to have gotten my movie question correct. X3 *gives PHJ a cookie and a balloon*

PHJ - 40.

Muahah, just for the hell of it I chose "Ginga's hamster thing". X3

[Katy Jane]

*psst* pointy, you posted the wrong link. ;)

[NAHTMMM]

This (http://www.quizyourfriends.com/scoreboard.php?quizname=040812221840-NAHTMMM~p27s~p20quiz~p20of~p20DOOM~p21) ought to be...interesting... :twisted: ;)

[Ginga]

*shifty eyes* More people are getting my movie question right. Me thinks there's a conspiracy afoot! >.> <.<

[Katy Jane]

This (http://www.quizyourfriends.com/scoreboard.php?quizname=040812221840-NAHTMMM~p27s~p20quiz~p20of~p20DOOM~p21) ought to be...interesting... :twisted: ;)

90% 8) I'd like to see anyone beat that on that quiz. ;) (And I can't beleve i missed the one I did. :roll: )

[Michiel]

0%. And I think that's quite an accomplishment. ;) I had to guess them all, so the chance of this happening is 0.056.

[PointyHairedJedi]

*psst* pointy, you posted the wrong link. ;)

Ah, okay...

Try this (http://www02.quizyourfriends.com/scoreboard.php?quizname=040812105106-How~p20well~p20do~p20you~p20know~p20Pointy~p3F&c=1&a=18) instead.

NAH, I got 30.

[Anonymous]

80 on PHJ :mrgreen: I picked my original answers even though I had been through the quiz before hand. S'no fun if ya cheat! :wink:

[Alexia]

:roll: Yeah, that was me :lol: :facepalm:

[Katy Jane]

0%. And I think that's quite an accomplishment. ;) I had to guess them all, so the chance of this happening is 0.056.

Congradulations. :D ;)

I retook Pointy's, using what i'm pretty sure were my origanal answers. Consittering i only got 50% , you won't have to suspect me of cheating. :roll: ;)

[catalina_marina]

Yeah. Same answers. So that's 70 then. I still say question one is rigged. :roll:

[MaverickZer0]

....I hate quizzes. Which is why I make so many.

Help me.

http://www.quizyourfriends.com/yourquiz_IM.php?quizname=040814022952-MaverickZ3r0~p27s~p20Messed-Up~p20Quiz

[Opium]

Hmm, I seem to be averaging 20-50%. Yay me! :?

[PointyHairedJedi]

Yeah. Same answers. So that's 70 then. I still say question one is rigged. :roll:
Question one? Question one is obvious. Question four is the really evil one. You're actually the only one to have gotten it right so far.

[Nic Corelli]

PHJ, Fuyu, Daniel and possibly some other people (can`t remember quite right) took my quiz and thought my real name was Carlos Armando! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

[danieldoof]

maybe it will get better when I hang around here a bit :wink:
I barely know you all yet

but my score is not bad for guessing is it?

[PointyHairedJedi]

PHJ, Fuyu, Daniel and possibly some other people (can`t remember quite right) took my quiz and thought my real name was Carlos Armando! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

GASP!

You mean it isn't? :shock:

[catalina_marina]

Thank you, Nic, for digging up this thread. For some reason I couldn't find it when I tried to, a week or so ago.

Any idea how you would go about it if you had, say, 4 balls?

Or: More than two balls and not enough balls for a binary search?
One ball: 100 tries.
Two balls: 14 tries.
Three balls: 9 tries.
Four balls: 8 tries.
Five or more balls: 7 tries.

Now, please don't ask me to generalize it further, for another number other than 100 stories, so that I'd actually have to set up a formula, because I already failed that once. And when I say once, I mean, of course, over and over again. :roll:

[PointyHairedJedi]

^ I forsee the potential for much fun here... :twisted:

[NAHTMMM]

Hmm. Actually, it should be fairly straightforward to generalize for a single ball... :?

[catalina_marina]

Uhm, well yes, if you stick to a certain number of balls, it is. But what if you vary that? And then, say, for 200 stories? Or for 150? Just to name a few.

It probably wouldn't even be all that hard, but I just suck at creating formulas. For now. :wink:

[Draknek]

(Draknek has been working this out for far too long)

Changing the number of floors is fairly trivial (once you get how to do it at all, that is - I didn't (http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/64866.html)).

With only two balls, the formula is:

y = ceil(1/2*(sqrt(1+8x)-1))

Where y is the number of attempts you need to make and x is the number of floors. (Ceil means round up.)

Showing my working backwards, that formula is produced from this one:

1/2*y*(y+1) >= x

Which is, in turn, produced by this one:

(Sum of a between a=1 and a=y) >= x

Which is the original formula for 2 balls.

For one ball, the formula is:

y >=x

But that is equivelant to:

(Sum of 1 between a=1 and a=y) >= x

Going back to 2 balls:

(Sum of a between a=1 and a=y) >= x

Is the same as:

(Sum of (Sum of 1 between a=1 and a=b) between b=1 and b=y) >= x

Extending this, for three balls, it would be:

(Sum of (Sum of (Sum of 1 between a=1 and a=b) between b=1 and b=c) between c=1 and c=y) >= x

However, at 2:20 in the morning, I'm not willing to work that out and get a y=blah equation for three balls.

(Apologies if this makes little sense, is in a stupid order, or both. Draknek is tired now.)

[Nic Corelli]

<twitches painfully on the floor due to all the math>


No, my name is not Carlos Armando and you know that perfectly well, :P

[catalina_marina]

Ah yes, the sums. I thought of that, actually, but I couldn't make any direct formulas for them, after the first one. And my calculator is pretty slow on the recursive ones. :roll:

[Alexia]

<twitches painfully on the floor due to all the math>

<also twitches painfully on the floor>

[PointyHairedJedi]

*Head explodes*

[Draknek]

Ah, my work here is done.

(Almost)

I worked out this to be the formula for 3 balls:

y^3 + 3y^2 + 2y - 6x >= 0

But either I've forgotten how to factor polynominals with magnitude > 2, or I haven't learnt yet.

[NAHTMMM]

Hmm, I shall have to program an appropriate program at school, just for the fun of it :twisted:

[Alexia]

Fun? FUN?! Are you insane?

Oh, yes. You are. In that case, I withdraw the question :wink:

[NAHTMMM]

I'm still not particularly happy with the (Mathematica) function I came up with...

ballfall[maxfloors_] :=
Do[For[i = 0; cmax = IntegerPart[maxfloors];
cmin = 1, cmax - cmin > 0,
i += 1, temp = Ceiling[(cmax + cmin)/2]; cmin = temp];
Return[i], {1}]
^Highlight that code if you can't read it because of the colors ;)


Ideally that would be a rounding-down function, not a ceiling function, but IntegerPart leads to an infinite loop of evil DOOM! when cmin is one less than cmax :(... Still, the only mistakes should be that the smallest number of floors for which n trials are required might seem to require only n - 1 trials.


Here's a plot for up through 100 and a bit... ;)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v27/Sloublues/ball1fall.gif

[Draknek]

That looks like the graph for 5 to an infinite number of balls.

Cat, are you sure that it's 9 tries minimum for 3 balls? I get 8.

EDIT: Nevermind. I wrote a program, which agrees with you.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

# Edit the next two values as appropriate

my $ballcount = 2;
my $floorcount = 100;

my $tries;
for ($tries = 0; 1; $tries++)
{
if (howmanyfloors($tries,$ballcount) >= $floorcount)
{
print "It takes a maximum of $tries tries to check $floorcount floors with $ballcount balls.\n";
exit;
}
}

sub howmanyfloors
{
my $tries = shift;
my $ballcount = shift;

# Can't check any floors without any balls
return 0 if ($ballcount < 1);

my $floors = 0;
while ($tries > 0)
{
$tries -= 1;
$floors += howmanyfloors($tries,$ballcount-1) + 1;
}

return $floors;
}

[catalina_marina]

I'm quite sure. You only get till the 92nd story with eight tries.

[Draknek]

Yeah, that's what my program told me, and I'm fairly certain now that it will be correct for any given values.

There's got to be a problem with my maths somewhere.

[NAHTMMM]

I don't even SEE much in the way of math in your program... :? ;)



Anyway, it would seem that the number of building heights such that you need a maximum of n one-ball trials to find the minimum height from which the ball will break is equal to 2^n (which isn't terribly surprising). That is, there are 2^(2-1) = 2 building heights that require 2 trials, 2^(3-1) = 4 building heights that require 3 trials, etc. And of course there's the exception of the building just one story tall, where you don't need to run any trials because you know the ball will break if you drop it from the first story since there aren't any other stories to drop from :lol:.

[Draknek]

Yeah, when my maths method started to get difficult, I switched to a programming method.

Which is good, because it turned out to be wrong anyway. I found the error: instead of summing 1/2*k*(k+1) between k=1 and k=y, I needed to sum 1/2*k*(k+1) + 1 between k=1 and k=y-1.

[catalina_marina]

And of course there's the exception of the building just one story tall, where you don't need to run any trials because you know the ball will break if you drop it from the first story since there aren't any other stories to drop from :lol:.
Actually, it could also not break there. It's not a given that the ball actually breaks when you drop it from a certain story.

[NAHTMMM]

It's not a given that the ball actually breaks when you drop it from a certain story.
Yes it is. I have a weightlifter waiting with a sledgehammer at the bottom with orders to act as I deem necessary. :twisted:

[taya17]

Nits, yours was WAY TOO EASY! :D :D Or maybe this is just a sign that we've spent too much time chatting online. :twisted:

Take my Quiz! (http://www.quizyourfriends.com/yourquiz_IM.php?quizname=040824041809-How~p20Well~p20Do~p20You~p20Know~p20The~p20Terror~ p20That~p20Is~p2017~p3F) and then Check out the Scoreboard! (http://www.quizyourfriends.com/scoreboard.php?quizname=040824041809-How~p20Well~p20Do~p20You~p20Know~p20The~p20Terror~ p20That~p20Is~p2017~p3F)

Did I miss out on anyone's quiz? I think I did worst on Michel's, I only got like 20 or 30 *laughs*

[catalina_marina]

Sneeky, giving Nic bonus points. :wink:

[taya17]

HEY! Did you see me complaining about Michel's last question? All the time you math geeks were discussing polynomial formulae you could hear the "whoosh" as it all flew over my head!

And besides, remember that *I* wrote the sentence... I don't think being Nits is going to help him very much either. More likely he'll have a harder time trying to figure out what I'm trying to say than y'all... "Hatrack hatcher? Brickbat lingerie?! WHAT IS THIS RUBBISH? AAAAAAAAH!"

:twisted:

[NAHTMMM]

Doesn't look like you've taken mine yet, 17 ;)

[taya17]

So I didn't. You link was a little tiny. ;) 40, not bad, I beat everyone except KJ (d'oh) and Nits, whom I tied with :D It seems that I have a knack of guessing the right answers better than most other people. I've been well-trained by years of fooling examiners into thinking I know much more than I actually do. :twisted:

And oh... btw, congratulations on getting the last question on my quiz correct. I'll have you know that you were the first one. ;) Smijeh.

[NAHTMMM]

^ :lol: I've had a little practice at guessing the meanings of sentences written in unfamiliar languages because of a trivia site I visit occasionally... ;)






I think I've figured out a general formula for the balls-falling-down-walls problem.
S[b, t] = S[b, t - 1] * (b + 1) + b (t > 0 & b > 1)
S[b, 0] = 0

b = number of balls per trial, t = maximum number of trials required, S = maximum number of stories for which no more than t trials are required
Recursive, but I think it does work. :)

[Katy Jane]

*smacks forehead* I only got two right, and one of THEM was the last one. :mrgreen:

[taya17]

Svaka cast :D :D

[catalina_marina]

Ehm, yes?

[PointyHairedJedi]

20! Some of them I really should have guessed, too.

I don't think you've taken my (http://www02.quizyourfriends.com/scoreboard.php?quizname=040812105106-How~p20well~p20do~p20you~p20know~p20Pointy~p3F&c=1&a=18) quiz yet, either.

[taya17]

I DID. I got 60! And I wasn't listed on the scoreboard! Hell, they didn't even send the results to me!!

Taking it a second time would be cheating...

[Nic Corelli]

Argh! 17! That damn quiz was just TOO DIFFICULT!

*THWAP!*

:twisted:

[taya17]

OUCH! Hey! Nobody asked you to make YOUR quiz so easy (and I swear the one I got wrong was a TRICK question, dammit, since I don't consider fiver-style snippets to be fanfic *injured sniff*)! :twisted:

And Nits, SINCE WHEN can I speak and write three languages? ;) I can't speak Croatian and I can't write Chinese, you know that well enough... or actually you don't, 'cos you've never actually heard me *try* to speak Croatian. Trust me, you don't want to! *sweet smile* :twisted:

You still topped the board anyway. :lol:

(p.s. Pointy... yes I *did* get a B3 for the English 'O' levels. I didn't believe it either...)

[PointyHairedJedi]

Heh. I'm in no doubt that your English is waaay better than mine then.

[Alexia]

It's probably better than mine as well... :wink:

[catalina_marina]

Ehm... I'm Dutch. 'Nuff said. :wink:

[taya17]

Ehm... I'm Dutch. 'Nuff said. :wink:

And the Point being...

[PointyHairedJedi]

I think she's trying to say her spoken English is about as understandable as mine.

[catalina_marina]

I think she's trying to say her spoken English is about as understandable as mine.
I might have been. It's too long ago... :roll:

Or maybe I was saying that it's definitely not. :wink:

[PointyHairedJedi]

In which case I have no idea what anyone is trying to say and I should probably just crawl back into my hole.

[catalina_marina]

Same here. Hole sounds good, I bet I can sleep there. :roll:

[Nic Corelli]

Ehm... I'm Dutch. 'Nuff said. :wink:


What`s so vague about *that*?


"I`m Dutch, ergo I am EVIL!" :twisted:

[PointyHairedJedi]

Well, not all Dutch people are evil. Just the ones that like gold. :D

[catalina_marina]

I don't particularly like gold... :roll:

No no, you got the cliche all wrong. We like money. We couldn't care less about gold... Unless we can sell it. :wink:

[PointyHairedJedi]

The question is, which nation is stingier? The Dutch, or the Scots?

[catalina_marina]

Do you really have to ask? :roll:

[PointyHairedJedi]

You're right, of course. The Scots are obviously much stingier. :P

[catalina_marina]

Indeed. Not everybody here is like me, you know.