Comments on: The Self-Referential Test

By: Jeffrey

Jeffrey — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:41:57 +0000

Is there some explanation for 20? I guess you could say all four have a relationship with weather, but it’s hard to describe, just like the relationship between standardized tests and intelligence.

But I’m not satisfied with that. It’s not just a mystical relationship. Higher test scores are very clearly correlated with intelligence. Similarly, a low barometric reading is correlated with storms and wind. Of course, the change in the barometer is what matters, but a low reading still means it’s more likely than usual that the barometer fell recently, so the expected wind is higher than average.

Maybe it’s correlated with low temperatures or latitude – I don’t know about this one. But there is no reason to expect a correlation with longitude – any small correlation that exists would be a coincidence of geography and choice of prime meridian.

By: Steve Landsburg

Steve Landsburg — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:25:35 +0000

Jonathan: It’s a plain text file. You can open it with whatever you use to read plain text.

By: Jonathan Kariv

Jonathan Kariv — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:24:40 +0000

Did the one Steve posted. Liked it alot. For some reason I can’t open the original one. Clicking on the questions prompts a “what program do you want to open this with”

By: IB

IB — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:27:45 +0000

Dave, yours is a fair question: 7 is pretty ambiguous. The answer is B.

Excellent puzzle! Enjoyed it tremendously! Thanks!

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:15:34 +0000

For you guys much smarter than I – on Steven’s original quiz I am stuck. Is the answer to 7 A or B?

By: Steve Landsburg

Steve Landsburg — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:39:04 +0000

Mike H: Oh! I wish I’d known about this before I posted. There goes the rest of my morning….

By: Mike H

Mike H — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:57:43 +0000

Try the original:
http://faculty.uml.edu/jpropp/srat.html