Timeline for How many minutes is it before 12 noon?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
17 events
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| Jul 3, 2017 at 23:15 | comment | added | David Liu | @Samha' That's not necessarily true at all. If that were the case, then the puzzle wouldn't make any sense in the first place. According to your rules, even within the first part of the puzzle, "How many minutes is it before noon?", "it" can't be used to refer to the current time, as "current time" hasn't been mentioned yet. Pronouns are simply things that can be inferred through context. If you ask a stranger, "How is it going today?", any English speaker will know you're asking about how their day is going, even though "it" is not specified. | |
| Jul 3, 2017 at 22:50 | comment | added | Rob | @Samha' Well that's just plain incorrect. 'What time is it?' Is a perfect example. Your question is really turning into an English language question instead of a puzzling question. | |
| Jul 3, 2017 at 20:34 | comment | added | Samha' | @DavidLiu How can "it" be used to refer to something wasn't mentioned yet? Intuitively, pronouns are often used to refer to subjects already mentioned before, either the latter subjects, or a former one with an additional hint specific to the meant subject. | |
| Jul 3, 2017 at 19:43 | comment | added | David Liu | @Samha' The thing you're missing is that the "it" at the beginning is separate from the second "it". The first "it" = x = minutes before noon. The second it = y = 120 - x - 68. They then state that y is three times as many minutes [as x]. Thus, y = 3x. This lines up with the "precedent" whatever times the subsequent. | |
| Jul 3, 2017 at 6:13 | comment | added | Samha' | Take a look at the usage of expression "times as many" in this English-linguistic forum. It favors my interpretation, in which the precedent = whatever times the subsequent. english.stackexchange.com/questions/7894/… | |
| Jul 3, 2017 at 5:59 | comment | added | Rob | @Samha' That's untrue - I fail to see any other legitimate interpretation of the question; there's only two possibilities, and we can prove one of them to be unsolvable | |
| Jul 3, 2017 at 5:56 | comment | added | Samha' | Well, it seems that you do justify your understanding to whatever the answer is. I mean, it's not like a genuine interpretation. | |
| Jul 3, 2017 at 5:54 | history | edited | Rob | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 3, 2017 at 5:53 | comment | added | Samha' | Regardless of my disagreeing, you didn't edit the part: "The number of minutes from now until noon, equals three times the number of minutes between 10am and 68 minutes ago" | |
| Jul 3, 2017 at 5:44 | comment | added | Rob | @Samha' How so? The number of minutes of now to noon is one third of the minutes between 10am and 68 minutes ago. Which is the exact same thing as saying the number of minutes between 10am and 68 minutes ago is three times that of the number of minutes between now and noon. | |
| Jul 3, 2017 at 5:39 | comment | added | Samha' | Well, the same error holds | |
| Jul 3, 2017 at 5:22 | comment | added | Rob | @Samha' Sorry, yes - I had it backwards in the text. I've edited | |
| Jul 3, 2017 at 5:22 | history | edited | Rob | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 3, 2017 at 5:13 | comment | added | Samha' | You have said "... equals three times the number of minutes between 10am ...", but x = y / 3 means "Number of minutes from now until noon, equals one third of the number of minutes between 10am and 68 minutes ago" | |
| Jul 3, 2017 at 4:48 | history | undeleted | Rob | ||
| Jul 3, 2017 at 4:45 | history | deleted | Rob | via Vote | |
| Jul 3, 2017 at 4:43 | history | answered | Rob | CC BY-SA 3.0 |