Brain dead
When I was a kid, my father applied to join Mensa, the international society that admits only smartypants who score in the top 2 percent on a standardized intelligence test. Mensa counts among its members such eggheads as Steve Martin and Jodie Foster. Cultural relativism doesn't seem to be an issue. Is the measure of an Inuit's intelligence guided by how many different types of snow he can discern? To make things truly challenging, perhaps Mensa should require that its members learn Esperanto--or maybe Klingon.
I remember the tests dad used to get in the mail, which he'd always pass on to me to do. Some of them were so obvious it made me wonder just how dumb you had to be to fail them. Mensa puzzles test various intelligence factors, such as problem solving, logic, and reasoning. But I think the smartest people of all are those who run Mensa, since they happily collect membership and test fees from would-be brainiacs for the chance to crack their noggin-teasers.
Here are a few actual questions asked by Mensa.
1. What letter should come next?
M Y V S E H M S J R S N U S N E P ?
Answer: O. The letters are the first and last letters of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
2. A caterpillar crawls at a speed of 21 inches per hour towards a vegetable patch. After being overindulgent it returns, over exactly the same distance, at only seven inches per hour.
What is the caterpillar's average speed over the entire journey ?
Answer: 10.5 inches per hour.
3. Assume you are using a basic calculator and press the numbers in the order shown, using each of the symbols +, -, x, /, once only in this sum, what is the highest whole number possible ?
4 ? 1 ? 9 ? 8 ? 7 = ?
Answer: 97
To me these puzzles are not so much about intelligence as exposure to information. If for some strange reason you never learned the names of the planets, would that make you an idiot?
I mention these puzzles because in researching my family history, I've noticed a disturbing Mensa-problem-like pattern in the longevity of my paternal ancestors. Granted, many factors play a role in determining how long I might naturally live, but if my ancestors' actual ages at death relative to the interval of decreasing prime numbers continues, I don't have much time left.
To illustrate:
Kayo's great-grandfather lived to be 90. His grandfather died at 75. His father was 62 when he died. If Kayo is 43 and this progression continues, how many more years are left before he expires?
posted by Kayo Kid at 2:08 PM
6 Comments:
8 years. What do I win?
Of course, that's just the math answer. That doesn't take into account the fact that you're in really good shape.
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The math problem is also flawed, because some calculators use order of operations, some don't. 4/1 +9 x8-7=97, as long as you don't use order of operations (but you must). The correct answer using order of operations is 69. Parenthetical work is necessary.
Also, I'm a bit confused. 15 isn't prime, it's composite. If you're going for a decreasing sequence, you are prime, but your son would be composite. His son would have a prime, and then his son would be a prime.
Oh my god. You have a son?
See? I don't even know what a prime number is, so I don't qualify for Mensa. I shouldn't have expected a mathematician to put aside imprecision for a little sympathy over my impending death.
On your death bed, I'll point out to you that there WAS a pattern, it just wasn't primes.
Somehow, I figure you'll live to a overly ripe age.
glenn didn't read the instructions. it says a basic calculator, which means the operations are sequential. 97 is right. there is no allowance for parenthesis in the description of the problem
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