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I put this into a response, but since it reminded me of another old legend (that I believe I first heard about in alt.callahans) I figured I'd share the response as well.
(in response to the bumper sticker taking three days to figure out)
Three days isn't too bad - it took me weeks, seeing it every day. I'm not sure why I was sure it meant something, but I was... but I kept thinking in the wrong direction. "Your mind is greater than an imaginary bear? But why sum of n bear-times-i divided by n?" "A brain is greater than (n+1)/2 bears?"
(See, if it was the sum of bear, times the counting number, from 1 to n (one bear, two more bears, 3 more bears...), well the sum from 1 to n of the counting numbers is n(n+1)/2. Divide by n, it becomes (n+1)/2.)
I wish I could remember how and when I suddenly thought "it's an AVERAGE of bears!" at which point, it hit me.
It's fun, though, and a lot better than a legend I heard of a riddle on a radio show.
They asked "What's the first thing you know?"
Well, technically, they asked "What's 'the first thing you know'" - the inner quotes are *essential*, as you'll see.
People phone in guess after guess for three solid days, from the philosophical to the comical, pun-inspired and not. No one (so the legend goes) was ready for the real answer.
(I promise you: this is not a rickroll and is work safe.)
https://youtu.be/NwzaxUF0k18?t=16
The legend continues, quite reasonably for a legend, that a police escort was required to get the DJs out of the radio station.
If you're not keen on clicking on random links (good for you, BTW!), I'll include the answer in the comments.
(in response to the bumper sticker taking three days to figure out)
Three days isn't too bad - it took me weeks, seeing it every day. I'm not sure why I was sure it meant something, but I was... but I kept thinking in the wrong direction. "Your mind is greater than an imaginary bear? But why sum of n bear-times-i divided by n?" "A brain is greater than (n+1)/2 bears?"
(See, if it was the sum of bear, times the counting number, from 1 to n (one bear, two more bears, 3 more bears...), well the sum from 1 to n of the counting numbers is n(n+1)/2. Divide by n, it becomes (n+1)/2.)
I wish I could remember how and when I suddenly thought "it's an AVERAGE of bears!" at which point, it hit me.
It's fun, though, and a lot better than a legend I heard of a riddle on a radio show.
They asked "What's the first thing you know?"
Well, technically, they asked "What's 'the first thing you know'" - the inner quotes are *essential*, as you'll see.
People phone in guess after guess for three solid days, from the philosophical to the comical, pun-inspired and not. No one (so the legend goes) was ready for the real answer.
(I promise you: this is not a rickroll and is work safe.)
https://youtu.be/NwzaxUF0k18?t=16
The legend continues, quite reasonably for a legend, that a police escort was required to get the DJs out of the radio station.
If you're not keen on clicking on random links (good for you, BTW!), I'll include the answer in the comments.
