Maths conundrum

[New2Quizzes]

Someone emailed me the following:-

If I choose an answer at random, what is the chance of my answer being correct?

a) 25%
b) 50%
c) 60%
d) 25%

(Yes, I know 25% appears twice! Yes, I know there isn't a "proper" question)!

[porilo]

I would say 50%. Like the chances of winning anything is 50%. Either you win or you don't.

[Psybbo]

Burgled once (so far)
Door kicked in (belligerent drunk, kicked in a few, so not personal)
Cars scratched

[Psybbo]

Sorry, wrong thread

[grasscarp]

Not enough information. would need to know the number of answers that you are choosing from.

[tenrec]

50% sounds right to me.

[grasscarp]

so you are saying that if you are presented with a choice of 6 answers to a question you have a 50 percent chance of choosing the right answer. I dont think so.

[factor-fiction]

I can't make sense of the question. Do you understand it?

[grasscarp]

No it doesnt make sense as it stands.

[boxtops]

There aren't six answers, there are only three. I'd say 30%.

[tenrec]

I think you just choose one answer, not from a choice of six, just from your knowledge. Then it would be 50%

[jd_here]

2 choices 50/50
3 choices 2/1
4 choices 3/1
and on and on....
well, that's my understanding

[tenrec]

Hmmm, I see what you mean Boxtops

[erin-x]

There are 4 answers.. A, B, C or D..

Question - What is the chance of my answer being correct?

Possible answers - A) 25%, B) 50%, C) 60% or D) 25%

[factor-fiction]

You could say none of the above!
If you ignore the letters and just focus on the numbers you could say there are 3 possible answers-24, 50 and 60.
If each number is equally likely to be right you have a 1 in 3 chance.

But as we don't know the rules of the game we can't answer it

[porilo]

Well the original poster did say that there "isn't a proper question", so on the basis of that, any answer would either be correct or wrong, = 50%.

[factor-fiction]

Sorry porilo- if you were given a 100 different choices would you still say each has a 50% chance?

[bobthefisherman]

Oh, here we go again.....
I answered this last week.....
It's 25%....

Remember you are looking for the chance, not the the answer itself......

[Prudie]

You don't have enough info to answer this question. The %ages are just to mislead. It could be written " If I choose an answer at random, what is the chance of my answer being correct?"
red ball
green ball
blue ball
red ball
It all depends on if the right answer is red, green, blue or none of them. If you knew that you could answer the question (and it would only be a 50% chance if in fact the answer was red)

[New2Quizzes]

Thank you, all. As it turns out, I see there's lots of stuff on Google about this conundrum, some of it more or less insightful!