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20 Questions (game)
Posted: December 26th, 2021, 3:53 pm
by breaker's glider gun
This thread is for the playing of the game "20 Questions."
It has rather simple rules;
player 1 chooses a plant or animal, and says "I have a plant" or "I have an animal".(we're not bothering with minerals; they sometimes get messy.)
any player besides player 1 may ask a yes or no question about the animal/plant.
player 1 must answer, and then say the number of questions left.
I have an animal.
Re: 20 Questions (game)
Posted: December 26th, 2021, 7:26 pm
by Moosey
Is your answer to this question "no"?
Also the sandbox is supposed to have CA-related, or at least academic, things, for moderation reasons, so threads like this probably shouldn't be created in the future.
Re: 20 Questions (game)
Posted: December 26th, 2021, 11:31 pm
by Aleph
breaker's glider gun wrote: December 26th, 2021, 3:53 pm
This thread is for the playing of the game "20 Questions."
It has rather simple rules;
player 1 chooses a plant or animal, and says "I have a plant" or "I have an animal".(we're not bothering with minerals; they sometimes get messy.)
any player besides player 1 may ask a
yes or no question about the animal/plant.
player 1 must answer, and then say the number of questions left.
I have an animal.
The species is undecidable. A quick internet search reveals that there are "between 3 and 30 million" animal species (source:
https://www.thoughtco.com/how-many-anim ... net-130923), and with 20 yes/no questions, we can only distinguish between 1048576 of them.
Re: 20 Questions (game)
Posted: December 27th, 2021, 7:30 pm
by breaker's glider gun
wwei47 wrote: December 26th, 2021, 11:31 pm
The species is undecidable. A quick internet search reveals that there are "between 3 and 30 million" animal species (source:
https://www.thoughtco.com/how-many-anim ... net-130923), and with 20 yes/no questions, we can only distinguish between 1048576 of them.
First, you don't need to be mean and use some obscure species of tortoise, you only need something like "box turtle" or just "tortoise."
Second, a lot of questions narrow it down a lot, like "is it a vertabrate?"
Third, we will outlaw insects, which will hopefully make it better,
And lastly, please, don't be annoyingly mean about obscure animals.
Re: 20 Questions (game)
Posted: December 27th, 2021, 8:29 pm
by Moosey
breaker's glider gun wrote: December 27th, 2021, 7:30 pm
Second, a lot of questions narrow it down a lot, like "is it a vertabrate?" [sic]
wwei was talking about the best strategy, assuming the worst case situation occurs, which is to eliminate exactly half of the options, since in the worst-case, you still eliminate half; if you try to eliminate, say, 60%, then if you get the answer you didn't want then only 40% is eliminated.
To give an example: suppose I ask "is it a marsupial?" or something of that nature. If the answer is "yes", then I've eliminated almost everything (lucky me!), so I narrowed it down a lot... but if the answer is "no", then I've eliminated almost nothing.
Re: 20 Questions (game)
Posted: December 28th, 2021, 10:18 am
by breaker's glider gun
Moosey wrote: December 27th, 2021, 8:29 pm
wwei was talking about the best strategy, assuming the worst case situation occurs, which is to eliminate exactly half of the options, since in the worst-case, you still eliminate half; if you try to eliminate, say, 60%, then if you get the answer you didn't want then only 40% is eliminated.
To give an example: suppose I ask "is it a marsupial?" or something of that nature. If the answer is "yes", then I've eliminated almost everything (lucky me!), so I narrowed it down a lot... but if the answer is "no", then I've eliminated almost nothing.
well, you would probably use: "is it a marsupial, pachyderm, equine, canine, or feline?" which will be answered "yes" or "no."
but, fair enough.
also, another source (though I havve lost it) said that there were
1.2 discovered species.
Also, can we stop arguing about this, and get down to the game?