This is a multiple choice test. Once you eliminate three answers, you pick the fourth answer and move on to the next question. It can't be A, C, or D, for reasons that I understand. There's a non-zero chance that it's B for a reason that I don't understand.
If there is no correct answer, then there's no point hemming and hawing about it.
I love this, it shows how being good at (multiple choice) tests doesn't mean you're good at the topic. I'm not good at tests because my country's education system priorities understanding and problem solving. That's why we fail at PISA
I'm going to say that unless you're allowed to select more than one answer, the correct answer is 25%. That's either a or d.
By doing something other than guessing randomly (seeing that 1 in 4 is 25% and that this answer appears twice), you now have a 50% chance of getting the answer correct. However, that doesn't change the premise that 1 in 4 answers is correct. It's still 25%, a or d.
That's an interesting perspective. The odds of correctly guessing any multiple choice question with four answers should be 25%. But that assumes no duplicate answers, so I still say that's wrong.
I'm going to double down and say that on a real life test, this would likely represent a typo. In such case, I think you could successfully defend a 25% answer while a 60% answer is just right out the window, straight to jail.
This is a self-referential paradox — a classic logic puzzle designed to be tricky. Let’s break it down:
Step-by-step analysis:
How many choices? There are 4 possible answers, so if we pick one randomly, the chance of picking any specific one is 1 in 4 = 25%.
How many answers say “25%”? Two.
That means the probability of randomly choosing an answer that says “25%” is 2 in 4 = 50%.
But if the correct answer is 50%, then only one option says “50%” — which is (c). So the probability of picking it at random is 1 in 4 = 25%, contradicting the idea that 50% is correct.
If the correct answer is 25%, then two options say that — a and d. So the chance of picking one of those at random is 50%, not 25% — again a contradiction.
Similarly, if 60% is correct (only one option), then the chance of picking it randomly is 25%, which again makes it incorrect.
Conclusion:
Any choice leads to a contradiction. This is a self-referential paradox, meaning the question breaks logical consistency. There is no consistent correct answer.
I try to use em dashes when I can, but I think they're used wrong in the comment above (IIRC they're not supposed to be surrounded by spaces, but I could be wrong). What tips me off is the unambiguously "LLM" narrative voice and structure ("let's break it down", followed by an ordered list). Not that a human can't type that, but sometimes it seems like ChatGPT is incapable of spitting out words in any other structure.
counter—point ; noone will accuse u of being a Ai if your grammer is shitte in a precise mannor , thou they will gouge ther I:s out when trying to reed it
actually come to think of it, aren't homophones/alternate spellings a pretty good way to avoid AI stuff? since they have absolutely no concept of the sounds words make. though i suppose it'll only work until the models get trained on that data..
I use em dashes all the time, but I don’t put a space on either side—I feel like that’s not the correct way to use one. If it is, I don’t wanna be correct.
It's 0%, because 0% isn't on the list and therefore you have no chance of picking it. It's the only answer consistent with itself. All other chances cause a kind of paradox-loop.
Correct - even if you include the (necessary) option of making up your own answer. If you pick a percentage at random, you have a 0% chance of picking 0%.
I agree with 0% but disagree there's any paradox - every choice is just plain old wrong. Each choice cannot be correct because no percentage reflects the chance of picking that number.
Ordinarily we'd assume the chance is 25% because in most tests there's only one right choice. But this one evidently could have more than one right choice, if the choice stated twice was correct - which it isn't. So there's no basis for supposing that 25% is correct here, which causes the whole paradox to unravel.
Now replace 60% with 0%. Maybe that would count as a proper paradox. But I'd still say not really, the answer is 0% - it's just wrong in the hypothetical situation posed by the question rather than the actual question.
Completely agree! In this case there is no real paradox, 0% is a perfectly consistent answer.
I think if you replace 60% with 0%, you'd get a proper paradox, because now there is a non-zero chance of picking 0% and it's no longer consistent with itself. It's similar to the "This statement is false" paradox, where by assuming something is true, it makes it false and vice versa.
It's probably graded by a computer, and a) or d) is a fake answer, since the automated system doesn't support multiple right answers.
I'm going to go with 25% chance if picking random, and a 50% chance if picking between a) and d).
If it's graded by a human, the correct answer is f) + u)
This can also be used a great example of proof by contradiction: There is no correct answer in the options. Proof: Assume there was a correct answer in the options. Then it must be either 25%, 50% or 60%. Now we make a case distinction.
(A) Assume it was 25. Then there would be two of four correct options yielding in a probability of 50%. Therefore 50 must be the correct answer. -> contradiction.
(B) Assume it was 50. Then there would be one of four correct options yielding in a probability of 25%. Therefore the answer is 25. -> contradiction.
(C) Assume it was 60%. Since only 0,1,2,3 or 4 of the answers can be correct the probability of choosing the right answer must be one of 0% 25% 50% 75% or 100%. -> contradiction.
Because of (A), (B) and (C), it cannot be 25, 50% or 60%. -> contradiction.
This seems like a version of the Liar paradox. Assume "this statement is false" is true. Is the statement true or false?
There are a bunch of ways to break the paradox, but they all require using a system that doesn't allow it to exist. For example, a system where truth is a percentage so a statement being 50% true is allowed.
For this question, one way to break the paradox would be to say that multiple choice answers must all be unique and repeated answers are ignored. Using that rule, this question only has the answers a) 25%, b) 60%, and c) 50%, and none of them are correct. There's a 0% chance of getting the correct answer.
The answer is not available. The answer is 0 Percent. Each answer, if chosen, would be incorrect. If 0% was an answer, it would be the correct one despite being a 25% chance. Of course, if one 25% was there, that would be the correct answer.
If they mark it wrong, and all the others, if chosen, are wrong, then your answer was right and they would have to fix their mistake. That wave collapses to there being 0% chance of being right.
Paradoxes aside, if you're given multiple choices without the guarantee that any of them are correct, you can't assign a chance of picking the right one at random anyway.
This only produces a paradox if you fall for the usual fallacy that "at random" necessarily means "with uniform probability".
For example, I would pick an answer at random by rolling a fair cubic die and picking a) if it rolls a 1, b) on a 2, d) on a 3 or c) otherwise so for me the answer is c) 50%.
However, as it specifies that you are to pick at random the existence, uniqueness and value of the correct answer depends on the specific distribution you choose.
It is 33% if the answer itself is randomly chosen from 25%, 50%, and 60%. Then you have:
If the answer is 25%: A 1/2 chance of guessing right
If the answer is 50%: A 1/4 chance of guessing right
If the answer is 60%: A 1/4 chance of guessing right
And 1/3*1/2 + 1/3*1/4 + 1/3*1/4 = 1/3, or 33.333...% chance
If the answer is randomly chosen from A, B, C, and D (With A or D being picked meaning D or A are also good, so 25% has a 50% chance of being the answer) then your probability of being right changes to 37.5%.
This would hold up if the question were less purposely obtuse, like asking "What would be the probability of answering the following question correctly if guessing from A, B, C and D randomly, if its answer were also chosen from A, B, C and D at random?", with the choices being something like "A: A or D, B: B, C: C, D: A or D"
Yup. And it says pick at random. Not apply a bunch of bullshit self mastubatory lines of thinking. Ultimately, 1 of those answers are keyed as correct, 3 are not. It's 25% if you pick at random. If you're applying a bunch of logic into it you're no longer following the parameters anyway.
Since two of them are the same, you have a 50% chance of picking something that is 33% of the possible answers. The other two, you have 25% chance of picking something that us 33% of the possible answers.
So 50%33% + 2 (33%*25%)= 33%
So your chances of being right is 33% cause there is effectively 3 choices.
There is absolutely no way it is 60%. Because you can never have 60% chances of picking anything particular when there are only 4 choices.
Knowing this, the answer is either 25% or 50%. Two effective choices, so the answer is C, 50%.
If C is the correct choice, then that is only one answer out of four that is correct, meaning you only had a 25% chance to answer correctly. You've created a logical paradox.
25% occurs twice, so in reality there are only 3 outcomes from your pick. Since you know 25% is incorrect from this, that is 30% of the total answers, but also 50% of total options. Via this, you can conclude that both b and c are valid answers, depending on whether you view it in relation to outcomes or in relation to options. If you view the 3 outcomes, then you have a 60% chance of being right, but if you view the 4 options, you have a 50% chance of being right. Both 50% and 60% being accepted as anwswers solves the paradoxical nature of the question.
Even at random, 25% chance are the only options that are wrong, and they account for 50% of the choices and 30% of the true options. Otherwise, the question has no correct answer due to the two 25%s.
One caviat of course is that in reality, 2/3 is 66.6% and not 60%, but ya kno.
If I'm choosing at random between 50% and 25%, then I have 50% chance to get 50%. It is random, but I eliminate the weird options.
I do that sometimes.
Selecting not at random, A xor D must be correct, because the answer key can only have one correct answer so even duplicate right answers must also be wrong.
B.
This is a multiple choice test. Once you eliminate three answers, you pick the fourth answer and move on to the next question. It can't be A, C, or D, for reasons that I understand. There's a non-zero chance that it's B for a reason that I don't understand.
If there is no correct answer, then there's no point hemming and hawing about it.
B. Final answer.
I love this, it shows how being good at (multiple choice) tests doesn't mean you're good at the topic. I'm not good at tests because my country's education system priorities understanding and problem solving. That's why we fail at PISA
You think like I do. Bet you test well.
Entertaining response but I disagree.
I'm going to say that unless you're allowed to select more than one answer, the correct answer is 25%. That's either a or d.
By doing something other than guessing randomly (seeing that 1 in 4 is 25% and that this answer appears twice), you now have a 50% chance of getting the answer correct. However, that doesn't change the premise that 1 in 4 answers is correct. It's still 25%, a or d.
That's an interesting perspective. The odds of correctly guessing any multiple choice question with four answers should be 25%. But that assumes no duplicate answers, so I still say that's wrong.
I'm going to double down and say that on a real life test, this would likely represent a typo. In such case, I think you could successfully defend a 25% answer while a 60% answer is just right out the window, straight to jail.
The typo makes the answer incorrect. The whole question would need to be thrown out.
Fair enough
But some tests award bonus points if you get the thrown out question right by answering what it should have been!
Nice logic; poor reading comprehension.
Does better reading comprehension get you a better answer?
No of course not, but the question is more important to the answer than the "correct" answer.
Not in a multiple choice test
This isn't a test. It's a logic puzzle.
It's not a puzzle. It's just wrong.
"Which of the following is a mammal:
A) rock
B) time
C) verb
D) Enui"
Is not a puzzle.
Based on previous guy's logic: D.
I know A, B, and C are definitely wrong, but I'm not sure I fully understand D. So it's D and move on.
Reality is I make a note and discuss with the teacher if they don't notice themselves when tests come back.
You chose A, C, and D, so you have a 100% chance.
This is a self-referential paradox — a classic logic puzzle designed to be tricky. Let’s break it down:
Step-by-step analysis:
How many choices? There are 4 possible answers, so if we pick one randomly, the chance of picking any specific one is 1 in 4 = 25%.
How many answers say “25%”? Two.
That means the probability of randomly choosing an answer that says “25%” is 2 in 4 = 50%.
But if the correct answer is 50%, then only one option says “50%” — which is (c). So the probability of picking it at random is 1 in 4 = 25%, contradicting the idea that 50% is correct.
If the correct answer is 25%, then two options say that — a and d. So the chance of picking one of those at random is 50%, not 25% — again a contradiction.
Similarly, if 60% is correct (only one option), then the chance of picking it randomly is 25%, which again makes it incorrect.
Conclusion: Any choice leads to a contradiction. This is a self-referential paradox, meaning the question breaks logical consistency. There is no consistent correct answer.
Chatgpt ass answer lmao
haha yeah, I knew it at the "let's break it down:"
I was like.. I know this voice....
"Conclusion:" was the final nail in the coffin
The motivation to do so confuses me. There's no karma to farm here.
Why not? Here upvotes do the same as karma in reddit. Absolutely nothing.
Eh. On Reddit, karma was intended as an indicator of quality and authenticity. It was heavily flawed and abused by bots and propagandists.
It's still providing a correct explanation to people, I guess
Got it right though
The © gave it away
That's whatever browser or app you're using. It rendered as (c) for me... Bracket, c, bracket
Well, parenthesis, and parenthesis, but yes
Parentheses can also be called (round) brackets, especially in the UK
ah, TIL, thanks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0iFrsCxZa0
The em dash is a dead giveaway as well
I try to use em dashes when I can, but I think they're used wrong in the comment above (IIRC they're not supposed to be surrounded by spaces, but I could be wrong). What tips me off is the unambiguously "LLM" narrative voice and structure ("let's break it down", followed by an ordered list). Not that a human can't type that, but sometimes it seems like ChatGPT is incapable of spitting out words in any other structure.
You’re right, en dashes would have been fine there. Em dashes don’t get spaced—and have specific grammatical uses too.
counter—point ; noone will accuse u of being a Ai if your grammer is shitte in a precise mannor , thou they will gouge ther I:s out when trying to reed it
actually come to think of it, aren't homophones/alternate spellings a pretty good way to avoid AI stuff? since they have absolutely no concept of the sounds words make. though i suppose it'll only work until the models get trained on that data..
I used to use em dashes all the time and now I find myself rethinking my writing styles because of people like you and it’s obnoxious.
AI has put me off writing lists.
I use em dashes all the time, but I don’t put a space on either side—I feel like that’s not the correct way to use one. If it is, I don’t wanna be correct.
I concur with this.
Heyo yee em—comrade
Y'all have got to stop this shit. Real people use real grammar.
Can't tell if serious because entering ( c ) without the spaces is (c) in Firefox and other browsers.
Is it because the other letters don't have brackets? I don't use AI to know if that is a thing.
(c)
(c):O
^dontthinkaboutitdontthinkaboutitdontthinkaboutit^
...so like, which one you picking?
E.
I would think that if you truly pick at random, it's still a 25% chance no matter how you cut it
You had to show off, huh
The comment - which isn't edited - uses
(c).Whatever client you use replaces/renders (c) [bracket c bracket] as ©.
Huh. I think it was just the web version of Lemmy. Weird choice by the Lemmy devs.
(tm)
The question is malformed and the correct answer isn't listed in the multiple choices. Therefore the correct answer is 0%
If only one of the 4 options said 25% would it still be malformed#
No. The scenario asks you to consider a random selection, but the solution in that case is a certainty.
Loaded dice
lol chill out there buddy it is only self-referential once. maybe twice.
I'm not certain, I think it's an infinite loop.
I.E. If the answer is 25%, you have a 50% chance, if the answer is 50%, you have a 25% chance, if the answer is 25%, you have a 50% chance...
The only way out is to choose 60% to accept defeat
Haha, I think they should have made that option 0%, to further the paradox
Yeah, that's right. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox
This is a paradox, and I don't think there is a correct answer, at least not as a letter choice. The correct answer is to explain the paradox.
It's 0%, because 0% isn't on the list and therefore you have no chance of picking it. It's the only answer consistent with itself. All other chances cause a kind of paradox-loop.
Correct - even if you include the (necessary) option of making up your own answer. If you pick a percentage at random, you have a 0% chance of picking 0%.
Correct, including 0% as a part of the answers would make 0% a wrong answer.
I agree with 0% but disagree there's any paradox - every choice is just plain old wrong. Each choice cannot be correct because no percentage reflects the chance of picking that number.
Ordinarily we'd assume the chance is 25% because in most tests there's only one right choice. But this one evidently could have more than one right choice, if the choice stated twice was correct - which it isn't. So there's no basis for supposing that 25% is correct here, which causes the whole paradox to unravel.
Now replace 60% with 0%. Maybe that would count as a proper paradox. But I'd still say not really, the answer is 0% - it's just wrong in the hypothetical situation posed by the question rather than the actual question.
Completely agree! In this case there is no real paradox, 0% is a perfectly consistent answer.
I think if you replace 60% with 0%, you'd get a proper paradox, because now there is a non-zero chance of picking 0% and it's no longer consistent with itself. It's similar to the "This statement is false" paradox, where by assuming something is true, it makes it false and vice versa.
It's probably graded by a computer, and a) or d) is a fake answer, since the automated system doesn't support multiple right answers.
I'm going to go with 25% chance if picking random, and a 50% chance if picking between a) and d).
If it's graded by a human, the correct answer is f) + u)
Many systems do allow multiple correct answers.
This can also be used a great example of proof by contradiction: There is no correct answer in the options. Proof: Assume there was a correct answer in the options. Then it must be either 25%, 50% or 60%. Now we make a case distinction.
(A) Assume it was 25. Then there would be two of four correct options yielding in a probability of 50%. Therefore 50 must be the correct answer. -> contradiction.
(B) Assume it was 50. Then there would be one of four correct options yielding in a probability of 25%. Therefore the answer is 25. -> contradiction.
(C) Assume it was 60%. Since only 0,1,2,3 or 4 of the answers can be correct the probability of choosing the right answer must be one of 0% 25% 50% 75% or 100%. -> contradiction.
Because of (A), (B) and (C), it cannot be 25, 50% or 60%. -> contradiction.
Cheeky answer - the correct answer is a superposition of 25% and 50%, thus you answer it as a multiple choice question
My client renders this as ( c )
42
But what's the question?
how many roads must a man walk down?
What is six times nine
Close, but nah, it's the meaning of life
nuh uh, it's the answer. to life, the universe, everything! Um, but what's the question?
Pick a number. Any number.
Damn hitchhikers.
C, which means A or D, which means C, which means...
Lisa stays home?
This seems like a version of the Liar paradox. Assume "this statement is false" is true. Is the statement true or false?
There are a bunch of ways to break the paradox, but they all require using a system that doesn't allow it to exist. For example, a system where truth is a percentage so a statement being 50% true is allowed.
For this question, one way to break the paradox would be to say that multiple choice answers must all be unique and repeated answers are ignored. Using that rule, this question only has the answers a) 25%, b) 60%, and c) 50%, and none of them are correct. There's a 0% chance of getting the correct answer.
You can never answer this question correctly. If the correct answer is 25% there's a 50% chance you guess correctly but that would make the 25% wrong.
But if the answer is the 50% then it implies that 25% is correct which implies that 50% is wrong.
We reach a contradiction for both 25% and 50% making the correct answer to make the whole statement truthy 0%.
The answer is not available. The answer is 0 Percent. Each answer, if chosen, would be incorrect. If 0% was an answer, it would be the correct one despite being a 25% chance. Of course, if one 25% was there, that would be the correct answer.
But if you did randomly choose the 0% option, you'd be correct. So if one of the possible answers was 0% the correct answer would be 25%.
But it wouldn't be correct, so 0% would remain the answer.
The point is that it can't be the answer if it's an option.
But the teacher can't mark it wrong, making it right.
Yes, they can. That's the problem with it being an option.
If they mark it wrong, and all the others, if chosen, are wrong, then your answer was right and they would have to fix their mistake. That wave collapses to there being 0% chance of being right.
Nope.
Paradoxes aside, if you're given multiple choices without the guarantee that any of them are correct, you can't assign a chance of picking the right one at random anyway.
What's the correct value if the answer is not picked at random but the test takers can choose freely?
All answers are correct then.
Thanks for making me laugh all alone in my car before heading in to work. I wish I could give you an award. Cheers!
0%
The only winning move is not to choose
Yeah option b should definitely be 0% for added fuckery
If you're choosing the answer, then there is 100% chance of being correct. Since none of these answers is 100%, the chance is 0%.
That logic would only hold if I wasn't dumb as rocks.
🤯
I see 25% twice so my bet is on 50%.
But 50% only appears once, which would make the answer 25%.
This only produces a paradox if you fall for the usual fallacy that "at random" necessarily means "with uniform probability".
For example, I would pick an answer at random by rolling a fair cubic die and picking a) if it rolls a 1, b) on a 2, d) on a 3 or c) otherwise so for me the answer is c) 50%.
However, as it specifies that you are to pick at random the existence, uniqueness and value of the correct answer depends on the specific distribution you choose.
33% innit
It is 33% if the answer itself is randomly chosen from 25%, 50%, and 60%. Then you have:
If the answer is 25%: A 1/2 chance of guessing right
If the answer is 50%: A 1/4 chance of guessing right
If the answer is 60%: A 1/4 chance of guessing right
And 1/3*1/2 + 1/3*1/4 + 1/3*1/4 = 1/3, or 33.333...% chance
If the answer is randomly chosen from A, B, C, and D (With A or D being picked meaning D or A are also good, so 25% has a 50% chance of being the answer) then your probability of being right changes to 37.5%.
This would hold up if the question were less purposely obtuse, like asking "What would be the probability of answering the following question correctly if guessing from A, B, C and D randomly, if its answer were also chosen from A, B, C and D at random?", with the choices being something like "A: A or D, B: B, C: C, D: A or D"
iis
100 **** percent, i'm all in!
I argue it's still 25%, because the answer is either a,b,c, or d, you can only choose 1, regardless of the possible answer having two slots.
Yup. And it says pick at random. Not apply a bunch of bullshit self mastubatory lines of thinking. Ultimately, 1 of those answers are keyed as correct, 3 are not. It's 25% if you pick at random. If you're applying a bunch of logic into it you're no longer following the parameters anyway.
If you picked it randomly 100 times, would you be correct only 25% of time despite two choices being the same?
It must be a 50% chance.
But that would mean 50% is correct and....
Correct answer: all the answers in the multiple choice are wrong
You can just say "I don't understand probability (or the word 'if')" next time and save a whole bunch of effort.
Since two of them are the same, you have a 50% chance of picking something that is 33% of the possible answers. The other two, you have 25% chance of picking something that us 33% of the possible answers.
So 50%33% + 2 (33%*25%)= 33%
So your chances of being right is 33% cause there is effectively 3 choices.
But that one answer has a 33% larger possibility of being chosen by random, than the remaining two.
I covered that by multiplying it by 50% as it represents 50% of the choices.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
There's a reason I dropped probability at school.
There is absolutely no way it is 60%. Because you can never have 60% chances of picking anything particular when there are only 4 choices. Knowing this, the answer is either 25% or 50%. Two effective choices, so the answer is C, 50%.
If C is the correct choice, then that is only one answer out of four that is correct, meaning you only had a 25% chance to answer correctly. You've created a logical paradox.
25% occurs twice, so in reality there are only 3 outcomes from your pick. Since you know 25% is incorrect from this, that is 30% of the total answers, but also 50% of total options. Via this, you can conclude that both b and c are valid answers, depending on whether you view it in relation to outcomes or in relation to options. If you view the 3 outcomes, then you have a 60% chance of being right, but if you view the 4 options, you have a 50% chance of being right. Both 50% and 60% being accepted as anwswers solves the paradoxical nature of the question.
the key word here is at random, you imagine a situation where you're doing it at random, but you're not actually answering randomly are you?
Even at random, 25% chance are the only options that are wrong, and they account for 50% of the choices and 30% of the true options. Otherwise, the question has no correct answer due to the two 25%s.
One caviat of course is that in reality, 2/3 is 66.6% and not 60%, but ya kno.
If I'm choosing at random between 50% and 25%, then I have 50% chance to get 50%. It is random, but I eliminate the weird options.
I do that sometimes.
The answer is clear
When in doubt, C it out.
I choose 75%
So then shouldn’t it be 100%?
More like 0%
I would think a b c d so 25% O he made a mistake znd forgot to take the bubble answer out. Now we only can pick between aord b c so it would be 33%
Seems my logic is wrong iff i read the rest
Any answer is correct as long as you don't pick it at random. I'd choose (a) because I'm too lazy to read the other options
60%
B) 60% because I'm generally very lucky.
Can I take a 50/50 joker first?
Yes
Great! I'll hand this to my daughter to annoy her co-students who struggle with probabilitiy ;-)
Selecting not at random, A xor D must be correct, because the answer key can only have one correct answer so even duplicate right answers must also be wrong.
It asked for whether the answer is correct not whether it lines up with the answer sheet.
I asked Google to roll a D4 and it rolled a 4. So my answer (correct or not) when following the directions in the question is the fourth one (D).
It's annoying that 25% appears twice. How about these answers:
a) 100%
b) 75%
c) 50%
d) 0%
That's why we're making fun of it though
Granted, it is more fun to have more answers involved, but 2 identical answers immediately gives it away as fake.