Poll Results
Poll 283: Pick the largest number:
Total votes: 2285
| Option | Votes | The number | |
| A. The number of votes for F: | 75 (3.3%) | A = 208 |  |
| B. The number of votes for A plus the number for C: | 192 (8.4%) | B = 75+91 = 166 | |
| C. The number of votes for J minus A: | 91 (4.0%) | C = 920-75 = 845 | |
| D. The number of votes H + A - B: | 77 (3.4%) | D = 226+75-192 = 109 | |
| E. The number of votes C*C/(D + F): | 154 (6.7%) | E = 91*91/(77+208) = 29.06 | |
| F. (Total number of votes)/10 + G: | 208 (9.1%) | F = 2285/10+229 = 457.50 | |
| G. G - (number of uncounted ballot stuffs): | 229 (10.0%) | G = 229-784 = -555 | |
| H. ((<choose> votes)*F + A)/J: | 226 (9.9%) | H = (135*208+75)/920 = 30.60 | |
| I. sqrt(G*J) + E/7: | 113 (4.9%) | I = sqrt(229*920)+154/7 = 481.00 | |
| J. 317: | 920 (40.3%) | J = 317 | |
| <choose>: | 135 (5.9%) | | |
| Ballot stuffs: | 784 (34.3%) | | |
The largest number turned out to be option C, with 845. Congratulations to those 91 people who voted for it!
This poll seems to have caused a considerable amount of confusion. Several people wondered what, exactly, some of the later options meant, pointing out that
G might be undefined, since it seemed to say that:
(the value of G) = (the value of G) - (number of ballot stuffs)
That was never my intention. Everywhere I wrote a letter (after the initial letter that defined what the option was called) I meant that the value of the
letter was equal to the number of votes for the indicated option. So:
(the value of G) = (the number of votes for G) - (number of ballot stuffs)
and similarly:
(the value of D) = (the number of votes for H) + (the number of votes for A) - (the number of votes for B)
(the value of I) = square root of[(the number of votes for G) * (the number of votes for J)] + (the number of votes for E)/7
I didn't write them all out in full like that because the options would have ended up way too long.
I suspect that J received the most votes for one or both of the following reasons:
- People couldn't have been bothered thinking about what the largest number might really turn out to be, so picked the simplest option.
- People interpreted "largest number" far too literally and picked the only option that was actually written as a number rather than a formula.
I'm actively disappointed in anyone who did that. I prefer you to think lateral, not literal!
This will teach me to try to be too clever writing questions. What am I talking about? No it won't! It's not a real poll unless half the voters
misinterpret the question!
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