Einstein's Riddle

[Boris Popov]

"Thaddeus L Olczyk" <olczyk at interaccess.com> wrote in message
news:3aae4114.63604234 at nntp.interaccess.com...
> On Mon, 12 Mar 2001 16:08:32 GMT, "David Murphy" <dwmurphy at home.com>
> wrote:
>
> >This reminds me of a test my class was given WAY back in grade 6.  It was
> >two sheets of paper long, and at the very top, it was clearly stated that
> >the student should 'Read the entire test carefully before beginning'.
> >
> >The point was, at the bottom of the second page, the student was told
> >something to the effect of: 'After reading through the test, place your
> >pencil on you desk and wait for further instructions'.
> >
> >Well, 90%+ of the class immediately went to work on this test.  There
were a
> >couple of questions where students had to get up and do things, and it
was
> >rather amusing to watch them run around.  About 30 minutes later, they
> >started to get to the end, and they realized that they had been running
> >around and scribbling down answers for nothing.  It was a rather profound
> >lesson, at least for me.
> >
> The version I saw the last question was sign your name and turn it in.
> There were ( AFAIK ) no questions about getting up and running around.
> We were given an hour told it was very important. I gave up after
> reading the test halfway in the first thirty minutes and started
> answering questions.
>
> It didn't help that we had a strange test two weeks.
> For the first time the HS I was in had set up a special schedual for
> midterms/finals. In this particular class we would meet for two
> seperate hours. THe teacher gave us an exam that should have lasted
> one hour ( by her estimation ). She was going to use the second hour
> for a class. It turned out that most fiished about 3/4 of the test in
> the two hours. So she had a reputation for giving long tests.
>
> >*IF* Einstein was just talking about people's ability to deal with just
the
> >facts, and not to make assumptions, I think 2% +/- 5% is probably a good
> >estimate.   Take a look at the first draft of the next project
specification
> >you get *grin*
> >
> The problem is typical of problems published in many magazines ( here
> in Dell Crosswords ). I suspect that 2%-5% will have the motivation to
> sit through solving the puzzle unless there were some other reward,
> but I figure half the population could actually solve it given the
> proper motivation.
>
> I also figure the fish thing was simply a typo, and that this guy (
> who hasn't resdponded ) was probably given this as a homework
> assignement, and is simply looking for a cheap way to get it done.

There are a lot of references to this puzzle on the internet mentioning
Einstein, 2% and non-existing "fish"... But again... You never know... :)

-Boris