Seriously, this probability riddle made me chuckle.
Of course, y’all know I love these types of little puzzles and stats questions. Here too.
So here goes:
If you pick an answer at random, the probability that you get the question right is?
A. 25%
B. 50%
C. 25%
D. 0%
Four choices to choose from is a 25% chance of picking the correct answer.
But two of these choices are the “correct” answer of 25%.
So that narrows it down to where two of the possible four answers are correct – and two of the possible four answers are incorrect.
This is a 50% chance of randomly choosing the correct answer.
The correct answer is B.
But there is a problem now. Do you see it?
If B (50%) is the correct answer here – the chance of randomly picking B is 25%.
But two of these choices are the “correct” answer of 25%.
So that narrows it down to where two of the possible four answers are correct – and two of the possible four answers are incorrect.
This is a 50% chance of randomly choosing the correct answer.
The correct answer is B.
And now we are back to where we started, again.
It is a case of circular reasoning.
There is no answer. You have no chance of being correct. 0%. This is choice D. The chance of randomly picking choice D (1 out of 4) is 25%. And here we go again.
I feel like it ruins it by explaining it, but here we are.
Did I miss anything?
H/T: