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It won’t take up much of your time – but if you’re able to answer all three questions correctly, you might just be a certified braniac.
It won’t take up much of your time – but if you’re able to answer all three questions correctly, you might just be a certified braniac.
The Cognitive Reflection Test
The CRT was developed by the Shane Frederick, a Professor at MIT, and it’s designed to measure a person’s tendency to override an incorrect “gut” response and instead reflect on what the correct answer actually is.
Harder than it seems
Three questions might not sound that bad, but it might be harder than it looks.
In a survey, more than 3400 people took the test, and amazingly, a third of the participants missed the correct answer on all three questions.
Only 17 % will get all right
According to Brainmanager.io, Frederick claims that only 17 % of the population is able to pass the test with all three questions answered correctly.
We can’t say for sure that that number is true, but let’s just say that a quick test in the office proved that Frederick might be on to something.
Question #1
The first question of the test is:
A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
Question #2
The second question of the test is:
If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?
Question #3
The third question of the quiz is:
In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?
Correct answer for question #1
The correct answer for question number 1 is 5 cents.
The intuitive answer is 10 cents, but with the bat costing 1 dollar more than the ball, it would add up to a total of $1.20, not the $1.10, wer’re looking for.
So the ball costs 5 cents, and the bat costs $1.05.
Correct ansvar for question #2
The correct answer for question number 2 is 5 minutes.
The intuitiveanswer is 100 minutes, but that fails to take into concideration the rate of the production by the machines.
If 5 machines makes 5 widgets in 5 minutes, one machine takes 5 minutes to make a widget – so 100 machines would make 100 widgets in 5 minutes as well.
Correct answer for question #3
The correct answer for question number 3 is 47 days.
The intuitive answer is 24 days, as it seems logical with half the number of days to cover half the lake.
But as it doubles every day, the lake has to be half-covered the day before it is fully covered, making the correct answer 47.
A friendly competition?
If you got them all right, congratulations, you can now call yourself a brainiac!
So it might be time to challenge one of your friends or coworkers to finally find out who is the smarter one?
