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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!decvax!cca!ima!ism780!jim
From: jim@ism780.UUCP (Jim Balter)
Newsgroups: net.math
Subject: Re: simple (?) statistics problem solved
Message-ID: <23@ism780.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 24-Aug-83 00:10:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: ism780.23
Posted: Wed Aug 24 00:10:00 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Aug-83 04:59:51 EDT
Lines: 24

re:
So you are impatient with the number of articles appearing on the subject of
coins and cabinets, and particularly so with one such article, Mister Balter?
What you and most other people seem to have missed is that the whole problem
is ambiguous in terms of its description using the English language.  There
are several ways to look at the problem, each from a different point of view.
For example, whether or not one is able to identify the SS cabinet is not
certain, thus creating a difficulty for those who would toss it out the
window.  Whether it is the drawers that should be the object of choice or
the cabinets is also somewhat fuzzy.  But then that's what makes for a
"problem" to begin with.

Yes, I am impatient with such silliness.  Please give some analysis,
quoting language from the original statement of the problem,
demonstrating the ambiguities you claim.  What makes for this problem
and many other problems is that careful analysis is important; the
problem is specifically set up to encourage careless people to
ignore the distinction between the two gold coins, and to inaccurately
count two of the cabinets equally.  If ambiguities such as you claim do exist,
they "cook" the problem, not make it.

Jim Balter (decvax!yale-co!ima!jim), Interactive Systems Corp

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