so i was browsing the IQ of my peers when i saw one that stuck out

Marilyn Vos Savant IQ = 228
Einstein IQ = 160


also another one that didnt make sense

George Bush IQ = 125


John F. Kennedy IQ = 119


http://www.kids-iq-tests.com/famous-people.html

[Edited on January 5, 2010 at 12:06 AM. Reason : .]

1/5/2010 12:03:24 AM

something is very wrong with our IQ tests

1/5/2010 12:03:53 AM

which G. Bush?

1/5/2010 12:04:57 AM

she was also an idiot

1/5/2010 12:05:42 AM

You have to factor in the Flynn effect.

Also…

Quote :

" IQ tests are properly administered to the same group of children 3 times over the course of 5 years as a method of looking for developmental issues. Instead of having a standardized score, each individual is scored against the group as a whole, similar to a bell curve. So, having a high IQ simply means that you scored well against your test group. If you're like me and tested against mostly idiots from South Carolina, your IQ score, like mine, means nothing at all. Heck, I am diagnosed with a learning impairment, and my IQ is over 160."

1/5/2010 12:49:29 AM

For me, it's not terribly meaningful to consider IQs above 160 or so, because IQ is a statistical measure...you're looking at the total population.

Around 150, the person is really fucking smart and really fucking rare...so when you look at IQs of that magnitude, your sample size becomes extremely small and you don't have as much basis for comparison.

Besides which, the IQ test is not designed to measure brilliance...it's designed to measure intelligence in people that are essentially average. Hence Einstein could easily score lower than Vos Savante, and perhaps not even be as intelligent in some respects...but Einstein can redefine physics, simply because he is a first-rate genius. That the IQ test does not capture his genius is indicative of the limitations of the IQ measure as applied to truly extraordinary people, not any lack of "intelligence" on the part of Einstein.

Moreover, based on the usual statistical definition of IQ (mean 100, standard deviation 15) it is extremely unlikely that ANYONE would ever live who had an intelligence corresponding to an IQ of 228.

1/5/2010 12:56:16 AM

We learnt about her when I took my Probability course.

She correctly solved the Monty Hall Problem resulting in a ton of university professors writing to her cursing her out because they thought she was wrong. (they obviously thought she MUST be wrong because she only has a BS and they have PhDs in MATH!!!)

Quote :

"A restated version of Selvin's problem appeared in Marilyn vos Savant's Ask Marilyn question-and-answer column of Parade in September 1990 (vos Savant 1990). Though vos Savant gave the correct answer that switching would win two-thirds of the time, she estimates the magazine received 10,000 letters including close to 1,000 signed by PhDs, many on letterheads of mathematics and science departments, declaring that her solution was wrong (Tierney 1991). Due to the overwhelming response, Parade published an unprecedented four columns on the problem (vos Savant 1996:xv). As a result of the publicity the problem earned the alternative name Marilyn and the Goats."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_vos_Savant

1/5/2010 3:45:03 AM

^i have a feeling years later someone will prove that it is indeed 1/2 chance

1/5/2010 2:55:52 PM

i have a feeling that you're wrong

1/5/2010 3:02:39 PM

when i have time i'll write up a little proof

1/5/2010 3:07:56 PM

maybe while you're working on it you can prove that redbox rentals are only a dollar for as long as you want to keep them!

1/5/2010 3:27:36 PM

1/5/2010 3:29:06 PM

Quote :

"^i have a feeling years later someone will prove that it is indeed 1/2 chance"

that's like saying one day someone will prove that the probability of landing heads is 1/3 and tails is 2/3 with a fair coin.

or

1 = 2

1/5/2010 5:29:30 PM

The boy/girl paradox blows my mind more:

If a family has 2 children and at least one of them is a boy, what are the odds that they have a girl? A: 2/3

If a family has 2 children and one of them is a boy named Jacob, what are the odds that they have a girl? A: ~1/2

The problem kind of reminds me of quantum physics

[Edited on January 5, 2010 at 6:20 PM. Reason : 1337 post ^_^]

1/5/2010 6:19:29 PM

^ you phrased that wrong, which makes your answers wrong

1/5/2010 7:32:49 PM

Quote :

"This question, named "the Monty Hall problem" because of its similarity to scenarios on the game show Let's Make a Deal, existed long before being posed to vos Savant, but was brought to nationwide attention by her column. Vos Savant answered arguing that the selection should be switched to door #2 because it has a 2/3 chance of success, while door #1 has just 1/3. This response provoked letters of thousands of readers, nearly all arguing doors #1 and #2 each have an equal chance of success. A follow-up column reaffirming her position served only to intensify the debate and soon became a feature article on the front page of The New York Times. Among the ranks of dissenting arguments were hundreds of academics and mathematicians.[14] Under the most common interpretation of the problem where the host opens a losing door and offers a switch, vos Savant's answer is correct because her interpretation assumes the host will always avoid the door with the prize. However, having the host opening a door at random, or offering a switch only if the initial choice is correct, is a completely different problem, and is not the question for which she provided a solution. Marilyn addressed these issues by writing the following in Parade Magazine, "...the original answer defines certain conditions, the most significant of which is that the host always opens a losing door on purpose. Anything else is a different question." [15] In Vos Savant's second followup, she went further into an explanation of her assumptions and reasoning, and called on school teachers to present the problem to each of their classrooms. In her final column on the problem, she announced the results of the more than a thousand school experiments. Nearly 100% of the results concluded that it pays to switch. Of the readers who wrote computer simulations of the problem, about 97% reached the same conclusion. A majority of respondents now agree with her original solution, with half of the published letters declaring the letter writers had changed their minds.[16] "

The wikipedia entry on this is wrong.

First, the first door has 1/3, the second door has 1/2 a chance of being correct, and it’s irrelevant if the host intentionally picks the wrong door, or if the doors are picked at random. The only key point is that IF the first door picked is the wrong door, then if you have the choice of switching, you should always switch.

This holds true too for any number of doors.

If there was 1000 doors, with only 1 having something fun behind it, you should always switch doors after each door that has nothing behind it is open.

1/5/2010 7:37:55 PM

^^^
it seems to be pretty much the same problem as the Marilyn Goat Problem, actually

If you say Given that their first child is a boy, what odds are the odds that their second child is a girl?
the answer is just 1/2

But if you just say Given that ONE of their children is a boy, what are the odds that the other is a girl?
the answer is indeed 2/3
because you go # favorable outcomes / total # outcomes
2 favorable outcomes: BG GB
3 total outcomes: BG GB BB

so 2/3

and it makes sense if you really think about it...of the three permutations which include a boy (BG GB BB), two of them also include a girl

1/5/2010 7:40:43 PM

^ i think the “trick” to that question is understanding that the probability that any new embryo will be male/female is always 50%. But the probability that a person has a certain combination of already-born kids is based on standard statistical models.

1/5/2010 8:03:42 PM

^^why cant you include a GG option?

nevermind

[Edited on January 5, 2010 at 8:11 PM. Reason : .]

1/5/2010 8:11:33 PM

^^^Right, but you don't even have to go as far as saying the the first child is a boy, just labeling one of the boys with the name Jacob changes the equation to approximately 1/2, which I find more interesting.

[The exception to this holding true is if the vast majority of boys are named Jacob - as the percentage of boys with the name Jacob approaches 1 the odds of a girl approach 2/3]

1/5/2010 8:20:55 PM

easiest way to understand monty hall problem (based on standard assumptions/interpretations/blahblah...): every time you pick a goat and switch, you win a car. goat --> car. there is a 2/3 chance that the first door you pick is a goat. so always switching = 2/3 chance of winning car.

the real mind job is why the "smartest person in the world" is a lowly columnist for a newspaper magazine that people read only if they have time after the comics. seems like a position more befitting for someone in a wheelchair with a speech synthesizer. [hint: lol iq tests]

1/5/2010 8:35:33 PM