Noesis

The Journal of the Mega Society

April 2004 Issue 168

Officers

Editor and Publisher: Ron Yannone

189 Ash Street #2

Nashua, NH 03060

Administrator: Jeff Ward

13155 Wimberly Square

San Diego, CA 92128

Internet Officer: Kevin Langdon

P.O. Box 795

Berkeley, CA 94701

Founder: Ronald K. Hoeflin

P.O. Box 539

New York, NY 10101

no·e·sis – Greek Þ understanding – to perceive. Psychology Þ the cognitive process

The Mega Society was founded in 1982 and has been documented in the GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS during the 1980s as the most exclusive society. Mega means million and denotes the one-in-a-million status of its members. Presently, the only viable adult-level admissions test is the Titan Test, developed by its founder, Ron Hoeflin – where 43/48 correct answers corresponds to the minimum accepted IQ level of 176. See www.megasociety.net Since its GUINNESS “distinction” in the 1980’s, the Mega Society with its 99.9999 percentile member status, remains “the most elite ultra-high IQ Society.”

Editorial Introduction to NOESIS Issue #168 – April 2004

Welcome to a kaleidoscopic treat – Noesis #168.

First, please find enclosed a small gift in a small brown coin envelope – for members and non-member subscribers – a memorable, wallet-sized, Mega Society card!

In this issue we cover a variety of topics – totally prepared in Microsoft WORD this time.

We start with a surprise wish to someone we all hold dear. His long-term dedication, spanning over a quarter of a century in the intelligence testing arena, and establishing several Hi-IQ societies, has made his name synonymous with “IQ” throughout the world.

The next item is an interesting twist on chessboard design and game strategy, corresponding to a Polish-developed chess-for-three product. Future Mega Society “admissions test” developers should consider leveraging chess-for-three as a tantalizing test problem.

Next, we learn a little about Mega Society veteran, W. H. “Bill” Corley. Bill developed the column “DIVERTISSEMENTS” in the 1984 Megarian publications – where he presented challenging verbal and math exercises. We encourage Bill to resume this column for future Noesis journals after he settles into his new home.

Next, we read a letter from long-time Mega Society veteran Christopher P. Harding (Australia). Chris expended an exorbitant number of hours to develop six candidate admissions tests. We disperse the six tests throughout the journal (1/2, 3/4, and 5/6). Chris would appreciate constructive criticism on any/all of his six tests. The solutions are intentionally not provided. Chris was born in the UK in 1944. He is a co-author of a book I purchased in November 1994 titled “The Ultimate IQ Challenge” with Marcel Feenstra and Philip J. Carter [ISBN 0-7063-7232-8]. What’s interesting is the three authors present an I.S.P.E. (International Society for Philosophical Enquiry) Vocabulary Test in the back of their book that has 70 questions and accompanying percentile score table. An average score on this test is approximately 16/70 correct – the top 45 percent. At the time the book was printed, the top score of 65/70 corresponded to the top 0.0004 percent.

Next, we developed a word/definition matching exercise. Here we delve into the intense “word world” of Josefa Heifetz. Jascha Heifetz, Josefa’s father, allowed her hobby of collecting odd words to sidetrack her own musical career as a concert pianist and composer. Working alone, she spent ten years searching through innumerable lexicons and unabridged works too bulky for browsing. She examined and rejected hundreds of thousands, before deciding on the words that appear in her 264-page book. Some of the selected words look like JUMBLES! To keep the intensity elevated, we present the answers elsewhere in this journal.

Next, we capture a very interesting study conducted by an insurance research company, Quality Planning Corporation (QPC). QPC presents a table that lists occupations of drivers involved in accidents and speeding violations. You’ll be surprised at the two professions that ironically contribute to the top-five ranked!

Next, we return for more mental gymnastics, by presenting 26 famous quotes – the authors of which you are to identify. The answers appear separately in this journal.

Next, Dean Inada, long-time Mega Society member, does an article to complement Chris Cole’s efforts. Dean’s paper is on “Bayesian Estimate of IQs.”

Next, Christopher P. Harding sent us a CD ROM with an article commenting on Chris Cole’s “Speculations on Physics VI” in the March Noesis #167

Next, we present three fun chess exercises with a twist – either for yourself, your children, nephews, nieces, grandchildren, or someone you know appreciates chess. The exercises are dispersed throughout the journal. We do not include the answers. Dr. Miodrag Petkovic is a professor at the University of Nis, Yugoslavia. He has published over 130 scientific papers and the author/co-author of 6 books. The 3 problems are “historical” – but have interesting “twists” to them.

Next, we explore a progressive “adjective JUMBLE” exercise – where the first part looks at unveiling JUMBLES, the second places them in interesting sentences, and if this is still too difficult, in the third presentation the JUMBLES are placed in their corresponding sentences to aid your investigation. Here, we team with Dr. Eugene Ehrlich - coeditor of The Oxford English Dictionary and the author of dozens of books.

Next, based on item (6) below, I received the April issue of Gift of Fire, the journal of the Prometheus Society. I like the diverse author “team.” The immediate article that caught my attention was by Albert Frank from Belgium – a member of Dr. Hoeflin’s OATH (one-in-a-thousand) high-IQ society. Albert and Philippe Jacqueroux developed the first 3 (of 4) “International Contest of Logical Problems” exercises. The April issue of Gift of Fire has the “Fourth International Contest of Logical Problems” developed by the members of Albert Frank’s Ludomind Society. We include the 3^rd and 4^th contests in this issue of Noesis – with enthusiastic permission by Albert Frank – and a short introduction on Albert. The URL for the Ludomind Society is: http://www.digimind.org/ludomind

Next, a few words from past Noesis issues.

1. The BALLOTS distributed with Noesis issue #167 should have been addressed to Jeff Ward, our Administrator. I apologize. About a dozen BALLOTs were forwarded to Jeff Ward. A word of thanks to the members. All BALLOTs were received or post-marked 31 March. Nice work!

2. It wasn’t until Paul Maxim wrote a letter inquiring on the missing page 37 (Noesis #167) that I determined that it was really missing. This page is enclosed for you to paste it in the back inside card-stock cover of Noesis issue #167.

3. Regarding the statement by Ron Hoeflin for a call-for-a-vote to reduce the Mega Society admissions cut-off, I inquired with Ron Hoeflin and he was nice to respond back in a letter dated March 23, 2004. As a result of his response (below), we will not be calling for a vote to reduce the Mega Society cut-off.

“I am impartial to how the Mega Society handles its admissions cut-off, i.e., whether the Mega Society keeps the 1-in-a-milion standard or adopts a 15-per-million standard.”

4. As you can see from Noesis issue #166, and this present Noesis issue, I r-e-a-l-l-y would appreciate enlightening articles from my fellow Mega Society comrades. Rick Rosner, a former editor, will try to do an article in the future. Ideally, my job would be considerably more tractable if each member contributed a couple of articles per year. To prepare the articles, orchestrate the Noesis journal outline, and publish the journal in a professional manner, can be a full-time job. I entreat my comrades to support our global endeavor. The members make up the “fabric” of the Society, and our readers will be thrilled to see the “bouquet” such an intelligent cluster can dynamically create in each forthcoming issue of their “flagship product” – the Noesis journal.

5. In Noesis issue #167, I did an article titled “Another Avenue for Seeking out Prospective Members for the Mega Society.” We’ve made great headway. I prepared a cover letter that was sent to the USAMO/IMO advisory panels with accompanying email/URLs to the Mega Society home page and Titan Test. In speaking with the new CAMC Director, Steve Dunbar, he says getting the Titan Test to the USAMO (United States of America Mathematics Olympiad) and IMO (International Mathematics Olympiad) winners over the past several years is a great idea. Steve said these USAMO/IMO winners have excellent verbal skills as well, and said in regard to the VERBAL portion of the Titan Test, these candidates should do well. Steve had his secretary forward the email to these winners. The CAMC keeps track of these young, stellar, mathematicians for decades! I have inquired with our founder and Titan Test developer, Dr. Ron Hoeflin, to waive the scoring fee for these specific individuals. I mentioned to Ron Hoeflin that this would open the door to some potentially outstanding Mega Society candidates. I further offered a small personal, contribution to Ron Hoeflin for each “USAMO/IMO winner” Titan Test he scores. A short article on the 2001 USAMO/IMO winners is provided in this issue of Noesis.

6. In a telephone “fireside chat” with Internet Officer Kevin Langdon in March, we discussed ideas for future articles in Noesis. One was the AMC (American Mathematics Competitions) presented in Noesis issue #167. I went the extra mile in the AMC article – and looked at it as a mechanism to reach well-qualified Mega Society candidates. A second topic Kevin suggested was for me to read some issues of the Prometheus Society’s journal, Gift of Fire (GoF), edited by Fred Vaughan. My mind churned at the speed of light, and I instantly offered to exchange Noesis for GoF with Fred Vaughan. To make a long story short, Fred responded in a very positive manner, and Brian Schwartz (Treasurer) said he would pay for my subscription to GoF! Fred and I have similar professional backgrounds.

7. Brian Schwartz, our friendly Prometheus Society treasurer, submitted three articles relative to the SAT issue. Two articles are responses to articles Kevin Langdon and Chris Cole presented in Noesis issue #167. Brian’s third article is titled “How ‘Selective Tests’ Test.”

8. The editor continues to communicate with other organizations and publishers for purposes of introducing them to the Mega Society, its impressive history, and to define avenues to “advertise” the Mega Society’s desire to solicit high-likelihood candidates via publication of the Titan Test.

9. There continues to be high interest by many active Mega Society members to have a questionnaire that helps get to know one another. Our principal “vehicle” to meet one another is via our “flagship product” – Noesis. In the back of this issue the Mega Society officers developed an initial questionnaire “shopping list” for members to add to. We desire members mail their additional comments or itemized questionnaire list to the Editor via the enclosed pre-addressed, postage-paid envelope. After processing the inputs, we will include the official questionnaire in a forthcoming issue of Noesis. As the title to a delightful song in The King and I goes, “Getting to know you, getting to know all about you.”

NOESIS Journal – April 2004 – Issue #168

CONTENTS
#	TITLE	AUTHOR	PAGE
1	Happy Birthday to someone “Special”	Mega Members	7
2	A new Twist in Chess Games (with Fess, Luberda, & Givli)	Ron Yannone	8
3	Mega Society member H. W. “Bill” Corley – Yannone & Corley	Bill Corley	11
4	Bill Corley’s 2004 “Dirty Dozen” Exercise Set	Bill Corley	13
5	Letter from Mega Society veteran Chris Harding on 6 Hi-IQ Tests	Chris Harding	17
6	Candidate Hi-IQ Tests #1 and #2 for your Review and Comments	Chris Harding	18/21
7	Answers to Bill Corley’s “Dirty Dozen” Exercise	Bill Corley	25
8	“Uncommon Words” Matching Quiz	Ron Yannone	28
9	Accidents and Speeding by Occupation	Ron Yannone	29
10	Candidate Hi-IQ Tests #3 and #4 for your Review and Comments	Chris Harding	30/34
11	Name-that-Author	Ron Yannone	38
12	“Uncommon Words” Matching Quiz (answers)	Ron Yannone	40
13	Bayesian Estimate of IQs	Dean Inada	41
14	Comments on Chris Cole’s “Speculations on Physics VI” in Noesis #167	Chris Harding	47
15	Chess-ercizes – Problem 1 (“zig-zag”) – with Dr. Miodrag Petkovic	Ron Yannone	50
16	Name-that-Author – (answers)	Ron Yannone	51
17	Chess-ercizes – Problem 2 (“pistol-theme”)	Ron Yannone	52
18	“Adjective JUMBLE” Exercise – with Eugene Ehrlich	Ron Yannone	53
19	International Contest of Logical Problems – intro by Ron Yannone	Albert Frank	54
20	Chess-ercizes – Problem 3 (“invisible” chess)	Ron Yannone	59
21	PART 2 – “Adjective JUMBLE” Exercise – sentences with “blanks”	Ron Yannone	60
22	Hi-IQ Tests #5 and #6 for your Review and Comments	Chris Harding	62/66
23	AMC Article – Reaching out to USAMO/IMO Winners via Titan Test	Ron Yannone	70
24	Letters from the Editor	Ron Yannone	72
25	Reply to Kevin Langdon – Relative to SAT Topic Noesis issue #167	Brian Schwartz	74
26	Reply to Chris Cole – Relative to SAT Topic Noesis issue #167	Brian Schwartz	75
27	How “Selective Tests” Select	Brian Schwartz	76
28	PART 3 Adjective JUMBLE – The sentences with their JUMBLE placement	Ron Yannone	77
29	“Adjective Jumble” Exercise (answers)	Ron Yannone	79
30	Member Questionnaire Checklist	Officers	80

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Ron Hoeflin!!!!!!

Founder of the Mega Society

Age: 60

Text Box: February 23, 1944
February 23, 2004

Fred Vaughan (Editor-Gift of Fire) – used this photo when Internet Officer and supported its use in Noesis. Fred used this in a Gift of Fire issue

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday dear Ron Hoeflin,

Happy birthday to you!

Your friends from The Mega Society

A Novel Twist in Chess Games

by Ron Yannone, Rob Fess, Jerzy Luberda, Yaron Givli

“Challenging Chess for Three” – by Siegler & Co (1-800-442-0002), product item #151102 on page S-6 of their New Year’s Sale edition, price $79.95. Website: sovietski.com/sieglers. Sovietski H Collection - Historically Inspired Products With a Sense of Adventure. Copyright [168962] by Jerzy Luberda (1996), chess4three@wp.pl

Description: Increase your skills and add new levels of enjoyment to your play with the game that’s taking Europe by storm. Dimensions are 19” x 19” x 19” wood-burned board folds and locks. Velveteen-lined compartments keep carved, wooden pieces safe and secure. Complete with rules, in English. King is 2 ½ “. Handcrafted in Poland.

To our Mega Society admissions test developers – maybe a problem (or two) based

on this new “twist” of a chessboard might be entertaining and challenging to new test

takers! Each player has 2 opponents that he plays against, or in concert with, to usurp

both opponents. Rob Fess, Manager of Marketing Communications (Sovietski) provided the photo below.

Sorry, the glasses of Scotch don’t come with the game.

■ Won Bronze medal at World Exhibition of Inventions – Brussels, 1992

■ Won Silver medal at the International Exhibition – “IDEAS-INVENTIONS-NOVELTIES” in Nuremberg, Germany, 1992

A Novel Twist in Chess Games - continued

by Ron Yannone, Rob Fess, Jerzy Luberda, Yaron Givli

Playing Rules (with permission by inventor Jerzy Luberda 4/12/04):

Each player plays against two other players. The player who checkmates first is the winner. The player who has been checkmated loses and the third player loses as well, no matter whether this player only passively assisted or even consciously helped the checkmating player. Players must concentrate not only on their own attack and defense, but also on preventing either of the two opponents from checking the other.

NOTE:

■ Preserve the manner of movement found in classic chess

■ The red side begins each game (depending on the concept of a given match) and each time determines the position of the queen (E12 or I12). The white side plays second, followed by the black side and the red side once again, and so on, always in the same order

■ The chess pieces which move diagonally when leaving their own half across the central point of the chessboard have the choice of heading to the left or the right “half” of the board

Some of the theoretical auxiliary discriminations while concluding more complicated chess endings:

We also distinguish between single- and two-color checkmates. A single-color checkmate is performed by one player exclusively by his own forces. A two-color checkmate requires the forces of the third, that (who) is skillfully taking advantage of the positioning of another player’s pieces. (This leads to the situation that if one of the remaining players can make use of my pieces to checkmate a third, it is my error. And although the second checkmated the third, employing for this position of, for example, my queen, at this moment I lose as well.)

A Novel Twist in Chess Games - continued

by Ron Yannone, Rob Fess, Jerzy Luberda, Yaron Givli

Permission was given by Yaron Givli to use his copyrighted [1997] chessboard notation photo (above).

http://www.math.tau.ac.il/~gvili/workshop/Rules.html - date of email 4/14/04

Example Moves by Pieces – per Jerzy Luberda’s Game Instructions [1]
Pawn	placed on B4 Þ B5; placed on G4 Þ G9 placed on E4 Þ D5, I9, E9, F9
Bishop	placed on I8 Þ D7, C6, B5, A4; placed on J12 Þ I11, E10, F9, G4, H3 placed on D4 Þ C5, B6, A7, E9, F10, G11, H12, E3, F2, G1
Queen	placed on F3 Þ F4, F9, F10, F11, F12, G4, H9, E4, I9, J10, K11, L12, D5, C6, B7, A8
Rook	placed on D3 Þ E3, F3, G3, H3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8 placed on J5 Þ J9, J10, J11, J12, J6, J7, J8, I5, D5, C5, B5, A5
Knight	placed on E4 Þ G9, F10, I10, J9, D6, C5
King	placed on E4 Þ E3, D3, D4, D5, I9, E9, F9, F4, F3

[1] Note: it gets a little “dizzy” looking at this board, so please excuse any typos

Mega Society Member Bill Corley

The top left photo is Bill Corley at 18 months of age. Bill is Professor and Graduate Advisor in the IMSE Department and has been a faculty member since 1971. Prior to UTA (University of Texas at Arlington), Bill worked for IBM at Cape Kennedy in the space program, where he developed a computerized pre-launch checkout of the Saturn V rocket, and for McDonnell Douglas in the defense industry, where he wrote computer simulations of anti-aircraft missiles. Dr. Corley holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and an M.S. in Information Science (theoretical computer science) from Georgia Tech, a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from The University of Florida, and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from The University of Texas at Arlington.

Bill's research interests involve both theory and applications. His areas of expertise include optimization, multiple criteria decision making, statistics, network analysis, game theory, fuzzy sets, discrete mathematics, stochastic processes, and functional analysis. Bill has developed abstract optimization theories for set-valued functions and for functions whose variables are sets. He has defined the notion of multivariate order statistics and established a new type of hybrid fixed-point theorem. He has initiated the study of games with vector payoffs, applied multiple criteria to network analysis, utilized fuzzy sets in decision making, and made major contributions to the theory of fuzzy logic.

Dr. Corley has been principle investigator on such diverse research grants as designing aircraft wings with mathematical programming, modeling breast cancer using Markov processes, and applying information theory to optimal search techniques, among others, as well as a grant through 2005 to develop a new algorithm for linear programming. The U. S. Department of Defense has utilized his work in network theory. He has published numerous research papers, consulted internationally, runs an annual mathematical puzzle contest for students during Engineering Week, and directed 26 Ph.D. dissertations.

Bill Corley – Mega Society Member – Sample Papers

The University of Texas at Arlington
Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering

http://ie.uta.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=researchdescription&researchid=64&userid=85

Optimal k-Cuts in Graphs: A branch and bound algorithm is developed for partitioning a weighted planar graph into k components containing specified vertices such that the total weight between components is minimized.

A Generalization of the Max Flow - Min Cut Theorem: A generalization of the max flow - min cut is proved for a network partitioned into k components instead of two.

A Markov Birth-Death Model of Early Breast Cancer: The progression of early breast cancer is modeled as a Markov birth-death process with Gompertzian kinetics. A computer program is then developed for selecting an optimal treatment maximizing expected patient survival time.

Capital Budgeting Games: The capital budgeting problem is modeled as a game that is shown to have a nonempty core. Game theory is then used to determine a fair distribution of the yield.

A Mathematical Programming Approach to Aircraft Wing Design: A mathematical model of airplane wings is developed with a finite-element analysis. Dynamic programming is then used to maximize the reliability of the wings subject to various constraints.

The Wandering Salesman Problem: A network combinatorial optimization problem called The Wandering Salesman Problem (WASP) is formulated. The problem involves selecting a path through a network that has known probabilities of failure associated with the nodes. The objective is to minimize the overall probability of failure subject to a distance constraint. The problem is shown to be NP-Complete and then solved by branch and bound, as well as a "greedy" heuristic.

An Axiomatic Approach to a New Family of Game-Theoretic Values: A family of values for n-person cooperative games is developed from a bargaining viewpoint. These values generalize standard values such as the Shapley and Banzhaf values.

Generalized Optimization Criteria: The notion of a general optimization criterion is defined axiomatically and some properties established. Some new criteria satisfying the definition are then developed and applications given.

Bill Corley’s 2004 “Dirty Dozen” Exercise Set

copyright Ó 2004 by H.W. Corley

(1) IMSE professor Dr. Maria Savant grows plants for a hobby. One evening she goes to eBay and buys some oncidium orchids at $15 each, monkey puzzle tree seeds at $1 each (http://www.victorialodging.com/monkey_puzzle_tree.htm), and iris bulbs at $0.25 each. Dr. Savant buys exactly 100 items (with at least one orchid, one seed, and one bulb) and spends exactly $100. How many bulbs did she buy?

(2) Two EE students named Jose and Carlos meet in the lobby of Nedderman Hall to discuss a lab experiment. To determine who writes the report Jose suggests the following game, where the loser does the report. He places 40 pennies on a table. Then each player in turn removes 1, 3, or 5 pennies. The winner is the player who removes the last penny. Carlos agrees to the game, so Jose lets him go first. Select the correct statement from the choices below. Submit only the letter corresponding to your answer.

(a) Jose can always win the game regardless of Carlos’ strategy.

(b) Carlos can always win the game regardless of Jose’s strategy.

(d) There is insufficient information to answer (a), (b), or (c).

(3) The nation of Griddonesia consists of eighty-one equally-spaced islands represented by intersections of the lines in the grid below. These lines represent horizontal and vertical bridges exactly one-mile long that connect the islands.

A Griddonesian environmental engineer named caizb has designed a small flying robot for the continuous monitoring of air-pollution levels on the islands. The Robird® is programmed as follows. After taking a pollution reading on an island, it is equally likely to fly to any other island for the next reading. The process then repeats automatically. If the Robird® starts on the center island, what is the probability that after three flights, it returns to the center island? Express your answer as a reduced fraction.

(4) An ME named Jacob pays his UTA tuition by painting houses. The rear of his apartment building A is separated from another apartment building B by an alley of width W. Jacob stores his two longest ladders in the alley by laying them against opposite walls as shown below. Jacob’s ladders intersect 10 feet above the alley. Find the width W of the alley in feet to the nearest three decimal places.

10^’

10

30^’

40^’

Building B

Building A

(5) Six IE classmates decide to spread a rumor during Engineering Week about one

of their professors and humorously (or perhaps not) dub themselves the “Rumor

Tumors.” On the first day of Engineering Week each of the six IE’s tells it to six other

friends with no duplications. Each of these six new Rumor Tumors is instructed to tell

the rumor on each remaining day of Engineering Week, beginning the day after

he/she hears it, to six more people who have not previously heard it. The original six

IE classmates do likewise. Each new person who hears the rumor is given the same

instructions. At the end of the seven days of Engineering Week, how many people

know the rumor?

(6) Beth, an EE, is doing lightbulb research. She installs three incandescent

lightbulbs in three corners of a lab on the fifth floor of Nedderman Hall. Next she

wires three switches, one per bulb, in the first-floor lobby. The switches are not

labeled as to which switch controls a particular bulb, but all are installed in the off

position. Beth then grabs a CSE student named Gunther and asks him to determine

the switch that operates each lightbulb. No help or equipment is allowed. What is the

minimum number of trips from lobby to lab required by Gunther to determine the

switch corresponding to each lightbulb?

(7) The American Psychiatric Association recently recognized as a valid psychiatric

diagnosis the condition known as Nervous Examination Response Disorder (NERD)

in which a student “freezes up” on examinations and performs badly. A

biomedical engineering graduate student named Ramya has developed an objective

neurological test for NERD as part of her Ph.D. dissertation. Validating her test on

UTA engineering students reveals that one in a hundred suffers from NERD and that

her test has a 5% error rate for false negatives, 2% for false positives. To the nearest

two decimal places, what is the probability that a student testing positively for NERD

actually has the disorder?

(8) Two CSE students, a female Sumalee and a male Xiao Hu, drive their respective

cars D > 0 miles west on I-30. While driving, Sumalee averages 60 mph on her first

pD miles for some 0 < p < 1 and 70 mph on her last (1 – p)D. In addition, she stops

for gas for exactly 15 minutes during her first pD miles. Similarly, Xiao Hu averages

60 mph on his first qD miles for some 0 < q < 1 and 70 mph on his last (1 – q)D, but

he stops for gas for exactly 15 minutes during his last (1 – q)D miles. Determine all

corresponding values of p and q for which Sumalee and Xiao Hu covcr the D miles in

exactly the same time.

(9) An ME student named Satish buys one Lotto ticket every Saturday and always

chooses the cash-value option rather than 25 equal payments (one immediately and

then yearly on the anniversary of the first payment). The cash-value option is the

amount invested at 5% by the lottery commission that would yield the series of 25

payments and end with a zero balance. During Engineering Week, Satish learns that

he has won the jackpot. Assume that the Internal Revenue Service automatically

withholds 35% in taxes from each payment. To the nearest tenth, what percent of the

jackpot amount will Satish receive (after taxes) as the cash value option?

10²

(10) A materials science graduate student named Tanya has designed a knife made

from a new material called überium that is harder than diamond. She tests it on a thin

8² ´ 10² rectangular sheet of stainless steel with a smaller rectangular hole of

unknown dimensions cut out of its interior at an unknown angle, as indicated in the

figure below (not drawn to scale). Using only the knife, a pencil, and three standard 8

½² ´ 14² pieces of legal paper, what is the minimum number of perfectly straight cuts

that she can make with the knife through the top surface of the stainless steel sheet

such that these cuts divide the sheet into two separate pieces of equal area of

stainless steel? Any change in the direction of the knife constitutes an additional cut.

(11) Dr. Frank N. Stein of the CSE faculty is teaching a course in quantum computing

this spring semester. On the first test, the eminent AI guru gives a problem involving

cellular automata. Consider the following cellular automaton, where the 12 squares

are 12 quantum objects in superposition having values both 0 and 1 (i.e., qubits).

Black represents the value 0 and white the value 1, so each square shows both

colors. Furthermore, each object is entangled, or correlated, with exactly one other

object. In other words, if an object collapses to value 0, its correlated object must

collapse to value 1 and vice versa. Finally, no odd-numbered object is entangled with

another odd-numbered object.

Suppose the 12 qubits are measured, and the superposition randomly collapses to the following cellular automaton.

To this cellular automaton, apply the rule: if a square is correlated with an adjacent square, switch colors; otherwise do not. The result is shown below.

What square is correlated with square 2?

(12) An EE named Farid is taking a course in information theory, where he’s currently studying codes. For a homework assignment Farid designs a code by letting 10 English letters be denoted by numbers as follows: 0 – I, 1 – E, 2 – U, 3 – A, 4 – V, 5 – N, 6 – R,

7 – F, 8 – P, 9 – S. If the English word “is” is numerically encrypted as 2 and “run” as 3 , then what English word used in mathematics does π + 1 encrypt?

(13) (Remember, it’s a dirty dozen.) During Christmas break an IE student named Elisa goes on a skiing trip to Keystone, Colorado, which has one snowplow for the road from the town to the ski slopes. It plows at a rate inversely proportional to the depth of the snow on the road. On Elisa’s first morning there, snow starts falling on the clear road at a constant rate. At 9:00 a.m. the snowplow starts plowing the road. It travels one mile in the first hour, then one-half mile in the second hour. At what time did the snow begin? Express your answer to the nearest minute in the form 8:12 a.m., for example.

Dr. Ron Hoeflin August 22, 2003

FOUNDER the Mega Society

P.O. Box 539

New York NY 10101

U.S.A.

Subject: “SIX TESTS FOR THE HIGHER MENTAL LEVELS”

Dear Dr. Hoeflin:

You asked for contributions for the pages of Noesis. The “SIX TESTS FOR THE HIGHER MENTAL LEVELS” on the CD may fill this void? I had a little spare time on my hands.

May I suggest that you ask members to write in and offer comments on these six (6) tests and their individual items. I only ask is that the members limit their attack to specific items in the tests rather than aiming their criticisms at me.

What would be interesting to know is what everyone thinks of each individual item. This would help in the writing of other items and tests for the future. It is interesting that no one actually asks testees what they think or feel about the validity of items that are used to assess them? The best that I've seen in this regard is a more general approach to how valid people think tests are: naturally the better they do at such things the more they regard them. How could it be otherwise. What would be more informative is what “sense” do they make of individual items.

It may be useful if one had a sense of the “face value” individually to the best performing subjects such as those in the MEGA SOCIETY. One can then aim to construct a test that has “appeal” if nothing else. Perhaps with the subject “on side” the validity level of the test can be enhanced. This would sure beat people “fighting” the test author.

Sincerely yours,

Chris

Chris Harding

AUSTRALIA

22/August/2003

*************** SIX TESTS FOR THE HIGHER MENTAL LEVELS ***************

By Chris. Harding -- Australia.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Candidate TEST [1]

– by Christopher P. Harding (Australian Mega Society Member for 20+ years)

[ 1] Complete the foreign proverb below ?.

~IT IS BETTER TO FART IN PUBLIC THAN KICK THE BUCKET ?= ~

[ 2] `YABBA DABBA DOO' is to FRED FLINTSTONE as `WHY IS IT SO'

is to PROF. ?_

[ 3] GOAT is to ?=...... VIGOUR as PHOENIX is to IMMORTALITY

[ 4] The only word starting with S with a double i ?=

[ 5] ?= ?= SINK SHIPS.

[ 6] ?=...... DISEASE is to HYPERTHYROIDISM

as HESPERUS is to EVENING STAR

[ 7] WHO IN ONE OF HIS FILMS SAID THAT WHILE HE COULD ACCEPT SOMEONE

WHO HAD BEEN BEHIND BARS HE COULD NOT ABIDE A LIAR ?=

[ 8] Observe the sentence:

``FEAR IN THE MIND PLUS 12 STEPS WILL MAKE YOU FAIL''. Translate

this into something in the following form A + B = C giving the

result A=? B=? and C=?

[ 9] QWE is to JKL as ASD is to ?=

[10] VAQUEROS is to BUCKEROO as EX-LEIPSIS is to ?=

[11] ICTHUS is to ?=............ as MANDALA is to DIAGRAM

[12] 6 is to TANNER as 4 is to ?=...AT

[13] 4699322988 230610710 13651761 2314615 ?=

[14] THE ?=....L FIRST APPEARED IN NORTH DEKOTA ABOUT 40 MILLION YEARS

AGO BUT WAS THEN ABOUT THE SIZE OF A HARE.

[15] BACON is to ARISTOTLE as FACTS is to ?=

[16] LARIAT is to LA RIATA as EUROPE is to ?=

[17] SOUTHERN USA is to DIXI as SON OF THE SOUTH is to .....MIN

[18] SINE is to LATIN as SHAMPOO is to ?=..........

[19] WITH ONE EYE is to NELSON as WITH ONE HAND is to ?=[ ]T

[20] CALL is to BACK as PUT is to ?=

[21] HYPERTOKENISM is FEMALE AUTOCHTHON as FRIEDRICH ?=..... is to

DIRECTOR

[22] LANDLASH is to SCOTLAND as MINSTRAL is to SOUTHERN ?......

[23] SASSENACH is to SCOTTISH as SURRENDER is to [?=.....]H

[24] MOON is to DIANA as SERGE DE NIMES is to ?=

[25] SANTA ANA is to LOS ANGELES as TEBBAD is to ?=

[26] TWIG is to CLONE as HEAP is to ?=

[27] ICARUS is to DAEDALUS as PAN is to ?=

[28] THAI CHINATOWN is to ?=...HON KASEM as EVEREST is to ?=.....LUNGMA

[29] JOHN STUART MILL is to LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURNS as

GEORGE BOOLE is to THE LAWS OF ?=......T

[30] ?=...MAN ?=.....RITH = JACQUARD + ELECTRONIC SENSORS

= AUTOMATIC READ.

[31] INDIA is to SINDHU as ROSE is to ?=

[32] WHICH PAIR OF NUMBERS BELOW IS THE SAME AS ANY GROUP OF THREE ?

7911214435

[33] NEVER MAKE IT is to ZENO as NEVER WITHOUT A ROOM is to

DAVID ?=[ ]

[34] MIND is to MENS as WISE is to ?=

[35] ..BOL is to SN..OL as L.S. is to ?=.....G

[36] SAHTNEAI is to .A.K or .O.S as YPHSREHTAIEN is to ?= ..US..L

[37] SYNDIC is to ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICIAL as ?=....RE ?=..Y

is to 24th May

[38] CERTAINLY is to SANE as WISE is to ?=

[39] WHITE MAN is to MOON as BLACK MAN is to ?=...

[40] THOMAS YOUNG is to 3 as to ?=.....D .........G is to 12

[41] WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WOULD BE COMMON TO ALL UNIVERSES ?

(a) abstraction (b) anxiety (c) death (d) energy

(e) errors (f) exhaustion (g) expectations (h) familiarity

(i) future (j) gravitation (k) length (l) life

(m) light (n) mass (o) past (p) sorting

(q) sphericity (r) time (s) truth (t) width

[42] CAPE CANAVERAL is to CAPE KENNEDY as EL DJEZAIR is to ?=.......

[43] COMMUNISM is to TOTALITARIANISM as MERITOCRACY is to ?=

[44] PROBLEM SOLVING:

(a) in the true sense is a skill possessed by few people

(b) is the love of thinking in abstract terms

(d) means in effect walking away from something

(e) will enhance ones knowledge indirectly and sometimes directly

[45] BACCALARIUS is to MASTER or DOCTOR as INTERNET is to ?=...

[46] ANIMISM is to LIFE as ?=..UBA is to ?=..ANO

[47] `TO ANACREON IN HEAVEN' is to JOHN STAFFORD SMITH

as `TO ANACREON IN HEAVEN' is to RALPH ?=......SON

[48] TOTEM is to CORPORATE IDENTITY as 12 TRIBES OF ISRAEL

is to ?=..IM ?=.....IM

[49] ICH DIEN is to THE PRINCES OF WALES

as `THE WINDMILL' is to ?=`.. ..... .....'

[50] NIETZSCHE is to GENESIS OF GUILT/PUNISHMENT

as QUESTIONS OF REDEMPTION is to

ANCIENT ......-........ RELATIONSHIPS

[51] ESAU is to BEERI as STICKNEY is to ASAPH ?=....

[52] WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING IS THE CONCEPTUALLY MOST DIFFICULT ?

(a)inenarrable (b)lamia (c)pindaric (d)oniochalasia (e)quiller

[53] TAKE DOWN is to ?=_ as PUT UP is to PARKING LOT

[54] SIR JAMES JEANS is to WITHOUT A CHAIR as ?=G ?=S

is to VANITY PRESS

[55] TED ?= is to BREAKTHROUGH as LAMARCH is to WISEMAN BARRIER

[56] GRAVITY is to 2 as MOLECULES is to ?=.

[57] 7 or 9 is to 14 or 16 as 22 or 13 is to ? or ?

(a)14 (b)21 (c)24 (d)23 (e)69 (f)26 (g)22 (SELECT TWO OF THESE)

[58] `ANTARCTIC BEECH' is to `TASMANIAN MIDLANDS' as

~THE CONTINENT OF SMOKE~ is to ?=

[59] `......WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER' is to WINSTON CHURCHILL

as `EVERY DEATH IS AN EXECUTION' is to ?=B_ ?=M_

[60] On the what ? is ``NOTHINGS AS NIECE AS MESSING ABOUT''

=END OF TEST [1]=

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Candidate TEST [2]

– by Christopher P. Harding (Australian Mega Society Member for 20+ years)

[ 1] DONKEY is to DEMOCRAT as ?=........ is to REPUBLICAN

[ 2] Which one below is unlike the other two ?.

(1)PANDICULATION (2)PORRECT (3)SCORDINEMIA

[ 3] BIG DIPPER is to ?=...... as CEPHAS is to SIMON PETER

[ 4] 14789 is to 0 as 3939 is to ?=

[ 5] LONDINIUM is to LONDON as MOUNT ?=.... is to AORANGI

[ 6] RED/ORANGE is to YELLOW/GREEN as BLUE is to INDIGO/?=

[ 7] `THE COMPLEAT ANGLER' is to ISAAC WATTS as `SILVER TASSIE'

is to ?=...N O'C..EY

[ 8] GET is to GET ?=... as RIGHT is to WRONG

[ 9] ?=.H.S.H.R.S is to MORNING STAR

as TOMMY ATKINS is to BRITISH PRIVATE SOLDIER.

[10] HARMATHAN is to ALGERIA and MOROCCO as KHAMSIN is to ?=

[11] Which one below is unlike the other three ?.

(1)RETROPOSED (2)TROP (3)TROPO (4)TROPOPHOBIA

[12] FOUR OF THE 9 WORDS BELOW ARE CONCEPTUALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE

OTHER 5. WHICH 4 ?.

(1).b.c.d.ry (2).i.e.ot (3).h.p.o.k (4).i.l.o.o.e (5).o.o.h.n

(6).o.r.g.n.um (7).o.ex (8).n.h.r.d.on (9).p.n.m.us

[13] CONFLICT IS A FUNCTION OF ?= [one word required]

[14] `PERSUASION' is to JANE AUSTEN as

`PHILOSOPHIAE NATURALIS PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA' is to ?=.....N

[15] WHAT IS ALSO TERMED `The Devils Rope' ?

[16] HENRI ESTIENNE is to ISAAC CASAUBON as ?=.......G

is to ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUE

[17] 7 4 1 3 2 8 4 3 6 1 6 3 2 1 2 1 8 ?=

[18] ~MOON'S A BALLOON~ is to DAVID NIVEN as ?=`........US'

is to JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

[19] MARCUS or MARK is to MARS as YORKSHIRE is to YOICKS ?=

[20] ON AVERAGE FRIDAY THE 13TH OCCURES ONCE IN ?= MONTHS

[21] FILL IN THE MISSING LETTERS IN THE LIST BELOW

.R.E.G.O

.R.T.H.T

.R.C. .O.E

.O.O.Y

.O.T

.T.C.A.O

.R.M.LO

.N.A

[22] TYCHO is to COURT ASTRONOMER as THOMAS WOLSEY is to ?=.........R

[23] WHO SAID: ``people who emphasize their authority generally has

little else to emphasize'' ?

[24] ?=...... is EGLOND as SABOTAGE is to SHOE

[25] GOSSEN is to ECONOMIC as HENISM is to ?=......

[26] LANCET is to BLOOD-LETTING as ?=............R is to DROPS

[27] GLAD is to LIBENS as GLADLY is to ?=

[28] Which from the following list does not belong with the

others ?

(a) .N.I.T.S.S (b) .P.T.O.A.C (c) .A.E.UL (d) .A.H.X.A (e) .N.E.IC

(f) .A.I.H.EN (g) .M.N.US (h) .E.V.R.E (i) .E.R.D.S.E

[29] WHAT LETTER COMES NEXT

I I T T S H U ?=

[30] TRINACRIA is to THE ISLAND as ?=....ING WHEN PROPERLY MANAGED

is to CONVERSATION

[31] `KIPPS' is to H.G.WELLS as `DIARY OF A NOBODY' is to

GEORGE AND WEEDON ?=.....MITH

[32] ENGEL is to INCOME as STURGEON is to ?=...P

[33] ?=........THESIA is HYSTERIA as ?=.....THESIA is to PERCEPTION

[34] STERIC is to CONFIGURATION as ROBERT FROST

is to GOOD FENCES / [?=........]S

[35] LOGARITHMIC is to NAPIER as LOGARITHM is to ?=

[36] FILL IN THE MISSING WORDS BELOW:

beehive hyperdermic | long white cloud

coathanger ?...'. ?.......room | oz

[37] INVERSION FOR EMPHASIS is to HYPERBATION as COMPLEX OF IDEAS

is to ?=

[38] H.G.WELLS is to THE LORD OF THE DYNAMOS as

KATHERINE MANSFIELD is to ?=...SS ..D .T.ER .T.R.ES

[39] .O.AN is to .E.T.NE as .R.EK is to ?=

[40] WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING IS DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS ?.

(a)amaurosis (b)meropia (c)typhlosis

[41] `ANNIE GET YOUR GUN' is to IRVING BERLIN as `CALL ME MADAM'

is to ?=_ ?_

[42] FILL IN THE MISSING LETTERS BELOW.

O ?=. A F G K ?=. R N

[43] EVA BRAUN is to HITLER as PROSERPINE is to ?=.....

[44] HAPPINESS:

(a) is at base an economic question for the most part, though having

other elements to it

(b) is an issue that can only be resolved through questions about

inter-personal dynamics

these factors

(d) depends upon one's upbringing and current mental health

(e) means gains occuring in relation to factors like surprise, etc

[45] WHO SAID: ``IT IS IMPOSSIBLE ALWAYS TO BE WRONG UNLESS OF COURSE

YOU HAPPEN TO BE A PSYCHIATRIST'' and ``THERE WAS ONLY ONE GOOD

POLITICIAN -GUY FAULKS'' ?=

[46] MOST POPULAR is to STAMP COLLECTING

as CHEATING is to ?=........ ?=.. ?=... ?=..LT

[47] COPPER is KYPROS as ATHENS is to ?=

[48] DEMOCRITUS is to ATOMIC as JOHANN BJORKSTEN is to ?=....G

[49] ART IS DEFINEABLE AS:

(a) a form of problem solving found in the social domain

(b) an upmarket form of the seek for community consensus

(d) expression of beauty as seen in the eye of the beholder

(e) the composition of incomplete expressions

[50] IF THE FOLLOWING LETTERS WERE REARRANGED IT WOULD GIVE A WORD

WITH WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING MEANINGS ?

aabelnt

(a) -a book on jewish history (b) -a lense for reading

(e) -a weapon of war

(f) -a world known only to the unlawfull

(g) -an artistic or dramatic scene (h) -sources of fear

(i) -the end of the week (j) -wisdom.

[51] ?=....... is to BULL as NAGAS is to SERPENT

[52] THE DAY is to THE ?=..... as STOOD is to STILL

[53] ?=...E:COW / SERA:SERUM / UNCI:UNCUS

[54] MOST PEOPLE SEE IMPRISONMENT OF CRIMINALS:

(a) as a way to find the means to rehabilitate them since they

must then comply with certain requirements

(b) as a means of keeping society as safe as possible

(d) as a means to teach them useful skills that may result in less

destructive modes of behavior

(e) as a way to rid society of its dangerous element

[55] .N.T.U.E.T is to .E.H.S.O.E as .D.I.ER is to ?=

[56] `SWEAT OF THE SUN TEARS OF THE MOON' is another name for ?=

[57] HUMAN INQUIRY is to ULTIMATE GOAL as WONDER is to ?=

[58] SENTIMENT IS:

(a)emotion (b)feeling (c)force (d)intent

(e)life (f)substitution (g)sympathy

[59] MABLE STARK is to TIGERS as PEEPING TOM STATUE is ?=.......Y

[60] JOHN RIDLEY is to SHOUT as

ARTHUR STACE [Clue: MR. ETERNITY] is to ?=

=END OF TEST [2]=

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ANSWERS – Bill Corley’s “Dirty Dozen” Exercise Set

1. 56. Let x = the number of orchids, y = the number of seeds, and z = the number of bulbs. Then 15x + 1y + 0.25z = 100 and x + y + z + 100, where x, y, and z must be positive integers. Let x = 1 and solve to find that y and z are not both positive integers. Next let x = 2, and solve with the same result. For x = 3, one obtains y = 41, and z = 56. Letting x = 4, 5, or 6, however, again yields that y and z are not both positive integers.

2. (a). Each player takes an odd number of pennies per play. After Carlos plays first, there will be an odd number of pennies left. After Jose plays second there will be an even number of pennies left. The situation repeats. Hence, Carlos can never take the last penny since there will always be an even number.

3. 79/6400. Compute directly, or let p_ndenote the probability that the robird returns to the center island after n flights, where p₀= 1. From the law of total probability

p_n+1= P(on center after n + 1 flights) =

P(on center after n + 1 | on center after n)P(on center after n) +

P(on center after n + 1 | not on center after n)P(not on center after n ) =

0 + (1/80)(1 - p_n), n = 0, 1, 2, … .

Thus p₁ = 0, p₂ = 1/80, p₃ = 79/6400.

4. 26.033. From similar triangles, W = + . Solve this equation in various ways (including MatLib, Mathcad, or Mathematica).

5. 7⁷ × 6 = 4,941,258.

6. 1. Designate the switches as 1, 2, and 3. In the lobby, turn on switch 2 for ten minutes and then turn it off. Immediately turn switch 1 on and go to the lab. The lightbulb turned on is controlled by switch 1. The lightbulb off and warm is controlled by switch 2. The lightbulb off and cold is controlled by switch 3.

7. 0.32. Let TP denote the event “test positive,” denote “has NERD,” and be its complement. Compute directly, or use Bayes’ Theorem to write

8. p = q for all 0 < p < 1. Solve

9. 38.5%. Let V be the jackpot value. Then he would receive V/25 immediately and then 24 more such annual payments. Now 0.04V in k years is worth now. Thus the present cash value after taxes is

Dividing by V and rounding to the nearest tenth of a percent give the answer.

10. 1 cut. The diagonal of the 8 ² ´ 10² sheet is less than 14². Place one piece of paper under the stainless steel such that the hole is completely filled with paper. Connect two opposite corners of the 8 ² ´ 10² sheet with a 14² side of a second piece of paper. Then connect the other two opposite corners with a 14² side of the third piece. Mark the intersection either on the stainless steel or the underlying paper, as the case may be. This intersection is the center of the 8 ² ´ 10² sheet. Next do the same with the rectangular hole, marking the center of the hole on the underlying sheet. Draw a line on the stainless steel that connects the two centers. Cutting along this line divides the both the sheet and hole into two equal pieces and gives the desired result. If the two centers coincide, any line drawn through the point would work.

11. Square 5. The given information produces a unique set of correlations.

12. “Even.” The number 2 = 2.095… , and 3 = 3.6250… . The integer portion represents the number of letters, and the decimal digits (unrounded) gives the letters. Since π + 1 = 4.14159…, it yields “even.”

13. 8:23 a.m. Let b = the depth of snow at 9:00 a.m., and a = its rate of increase. Let t denote hours after 9:00 a.m., so t = 0 is 9:00 a.m. Hence, the snow depth at time t is at + b for positive constants a,b with the snowfall starting at –b/a. For positive constant c, the plow’s rate of progress is ds/dt = c/(at + b), where s(t) is the distance traveled. Thus s(t) = (c/a) ln (1 + at/b). Note s(2) = 1.5 miles = 1.5s(1), so

“Uncommon Words” Matching Quiz

by Ron Yannone

Everyone likes words – to some extent. We “communicate” many facts by words. Words are a lawyer’s primary “tool.” Here is a short “Uncommon Word” Matching Quiz for your enjoyment, and use, that I developed. The reference used is Josefa Heifetz’s book “The Word Lover’s Dictionary: Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words,” by MJF Books, ISBN 1-56731-554-2; copyright 1994. The previously published title was “Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary.” Josefa is the daughter of the famed violinist Jascha Heifetz. Imagine if the 2^nd column were JUMBLEs? Eeek! [Approval by Citadel Press]

A	agerasia	a great-grandmother’s great-grandmother
B	alforja	to strike; to scare; to mystify
C	alnight	insomnia
D	amyous	a thick candle that will burn all night
E	ateknia	flowering again
F	awhape	crazy, wild, extreme
G	causeuse	to relax after a heavy meal
H	cuvee	youthful appearance in an older person
I	imperdible	strange, odd; shy or awkward; extraordinary
J	internecion	resting against something
K	innixion	something traded for something else
L	noology	nagging criticism
M	oriel	bashful, modest
N	orfgild	to strengthen
O	quar	a sofa for two people
P	quo	wine produced by blending different vintages
Q	remontant	without strength
R	rizzle	to concede
S	roinous	a leather bag; saddlebag
T	sapidity	mean, nasty, and contemptible
U	stoom	childlessness
V	tritavia	avidly; readily
W	unwemmed	incapable of being lost
X	unco	striped, like a ribbon
Y	verecund	the science of intuition
Z	vittate	unblemished
AA	wowf	mutual destruction
BB	xenodochy	a large bay window
CC	yarely	flavorful; tastiness
DD	yette	to fill or block
EE	zenzizenzizenzic	hospitality
FF	zoara	restitution of goods stolen in the daytime
GG	zoilism	the eighth power of a number

Accidents and Speeding by Occupation

by Ron Yannone

Quality Planing Corporation (QPC), the Rating Integrity Solutions Company, was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in San Francisco. QPC is focused on providing decision integrity solutions to the auto insurance industry. QPC works with insurance companies to identify areas of significant premium leakage using sophisticated database management, statistical analysis and modeling, customized survey design, and highly targeted customer interaction. For more information, visit www.qualityplanning.com

QPC reviewed over one million driver records across the United States. They determined the top five, along with the bottom five, occupations of drivers involved in accidents and speeding violations. The results [1] are shown in the table below.

Accidents and Speeding Violations vs. Occupation
Rank	Frequency of Accident by Occupation	Frequency of Speeding Violation Involvement
1 (most frequent)	student	student
2	medical doctor	enlisted military
3	attorney/lawyer	manual laborer
4	architect	politician
5	real estate agent	architect

36	homemaker	teacher/professor
37	politician	clerical/secretary
38	pilot	law enforcement
39	fireman	librarian
40 (least frequent)	farmer	homemaker

According to the QPC, “these numbers blow holes in the conventional wisdom about which professions are accident-prone or dangerous drivers.” They say that, “it appears that educated professionals are most likely to be involved in accidents [1]. Interestingly, for those unlucky enough to be involved in an accident, individuals from two professions which are most helpful after such an incident – doctors and lawyers – are the most likely to be on the scene.” The high frequency of involvement of students is attributed to their lack of experience and low aversion to risk.

The bottom five occupational involvements are thought to be a consequence that they spend less of their time driving. On the other hand, occupations such as truck drivers, bus drivers, and tai drivers – who spent much of their working hours on the road – were, contrary to one’s expectations, not in the top five of either safety-risk category.

[1] “Firm Rates Driver Accidents and Speeding by Occupation,” Highway and Vehicle / Safety Report, page 6; November 24, 2003

Candidate TEST [ 3]

– by Christopher P. Harding (Australian Mega Society Member for 20+ years)

[ 1] ?=.... is to FE as CU is to COPPER

[ 2] NEW YORK is to FIRE INSURANCE as ?=... .... ..TY is to ANTINOISE

[ 3] 9 9 7 5

7 9 5 3

7 8 4 ?=

[ 4] WAISTCOAT is to VEST as ?=..... is to LINE

[ 5] CAUTERY is to CAUTERISATION as ?=.........R is to VAPOUR

[ 6] `THE RAVEN' is to EDGAR ALLAN POE as `JOHN GILPIN'

is to ?=......M ?=.....R

[ 7] NIPPON is to JAPAN as BUTTERFLY is to ?=F.U.T.R.Y

[ 8] DAY is to HEMERALOPIA as NIGHT is to ?=..C.ALOPIA

[ 9] ASTROLABE is to ALTITUDE as ?=........R is to EYE PRESSURE

[10] UNTOUCHABLES is to SUDRA as CHILDREN OF GOD is to ?=

[11] PIERRE BEAUCHAMP is to CHOREOGRAPHY as ?=.........H

is to CHEAP BOOKS

[12] ?=..O.E is to SORROW as GOLD is to AU

[13] LLA is to TUB EON as SRKOON is to ?=

[14] SHEEN is to LUSTRE as ?=.....A is BRONZE

[15] ENCAUSTUM is to INK as ?=......RES is to THERMOPLASTICS

[16] QAZ is to EDC as YGV is to ?=..N

[17] IMMANUEL is to GOD WITH US as ?=..N ?=...O is to

WITH VERVE AND DASH

[18] WISDOM is to MINERVA as `SILVER WHEEL' is to ?=

[19] WRITE IN THE MISSING 3 DIGITS

34124667421099981180111121221444

166001015945104392766821698919[?...]483280

[20] Q A Z 9 8 7

E D C P O I

T G B L K J

U J M M N ?=

[21] `A 1ST OF MAY' is to ROOKIE as AERONAUT is to ?=

[22] LIFE is to ?= .OT.E.W.RT as CHILDHOOD is to NEOTONY

[23] NYCTOTYPHLOSIS is to NIGHT as ?=.AN.HO.YA.OP.IA is to RED/GREEN

[24] ANTOINE BECHAMP is to MICROBIOLOGY as ?=...L ?=...D

is to MOTOR CYCLING

[25] CHINA [ SPEAR | ARMOR ] ?=C...........N

[26] WRITE IN THE TWO MISSING DIGITS

1937561647313724915514632[?=.]828561[?=.]29117364

[27] FILL IN THE MISSING LETTERS BELOW

a...e.iou.

.a.e.iou.

[28] SCIENTIST is to NOBEL as MATHEMATICIAN is to ?=

[29] ORSON WELLS is to CITIZEN KANE as AVA GARDNER is to ?=.N ..E ....H

[30] THE HIGHEST FORM OF INTELLIGENCE IS:

(a) language. (b) symbolic. (c) energy. (d) evaluation. (e) logic.

[31] LEONHARD EULER is to EYE STRAIN as ALDOUS HUXLEY is to ?=..ON

[32] FILL IN THE MISSING WORD BELOW:

space time warp space [ ?= ] food store sign

[33] THE FINEST SCIENCE WRITER is to ASIMOV as

THE FINEST SCIENCE-FICTION WRITER is to ?=

[34] MACH is to NON-EXISTENCE OF ABSOLUTE SPACE

as [?=......]'S LAW is to HENRIETTA SWAN LEAVITT

[35] THE PONY EXPRESS is to ``THE MAIL MUST GO THROUGH''

as GENERAL ?=...... ?=.....LAN is to ``WE NEVER SLEEP''

[36] 47 is to DOWN as 45 is to ?=

[37] KHMER REPUBLIC is to CAMBODIA as SULTANATE OF ?=.... is to

MUSCAT AND OMAN

[38] ISSUES ABOUT THE EXISTENCE OR NON-EXISTENCE OF GOD ARE:

(a) aspects of the hypersocial matrix at points of non-intersection of

its equations

(b) deeply rooted in the historico-cultural context of which they are a

function

(d) the approach to unsolved areas of marginal awareness

(e) the process of struggle as it becomes revealed to us

[39] THE FLOWER is to THE INNOCENCE OF THE ?=...... ?=.....

as SMOKING is to BELONGING AND DEFIANCE

[40] U.K. is to GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS as INDIA is to

?=..... BOOK OF RECORDS

[41] 3 2 5 2 5 3 0 5 5 8 1 9 2 6 8 8 0 8 1 1 2 2 3 3 1 [ ?= ] 7 8 1 8 2 6

[42] SAINT SIMON is to FATHER OF SOCIOLOGY as

AUGUSTE COMTE is to [?=.........]M

[43] ~FLYING SAUCERS HAVE LANDED~ is to GEORGE ADAMSKI & DESMOND LESLIE

as `THE ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS' is to

ALPHONSE PYRAMIDE DE ?=.......E

[44] LORD is to LOAF-GIVER as UNRED is to [?=...-......]D

[45] `THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER' is to FRANCIS SCOTT KEY as

`ON THE CABALISTIC ART' is to ?=.E.C.L.N

[46] HOWEVER is to TAMEN as AT LAST is to ?=

[47] WHO WROTE: ``the impact of the internet on autistics may one day be

compared in magnitude to the spread of sign language

among the deaf. By filtering out the sensory overload

that impedes communication among autistics the

internet opens vast new opportunities for exchange.''

[48] ONE SEEKING AN UNSUCCESSFUL SOLUTION (s e)

[49] ?=..... is to WATER as ROBERT KOCH is to GERM

[50] SOUTHPAW is to DOLICHOCEPHALIC as TIMOCRACY is to ?

(a)ambidextrous (b)ambivalence (c)ampere (d)broad

[51] MIN MIN LIGHT is to FATA MORGANA as ?=...... FAIRY

is to CITIES ON THE SURFACE OF SEA ICE

[52] ALBERT is to STOP LOOKING AT as MOON is to ?=

[53] THE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION is to FBI as TSARSKOYE SELO is to

?=.......

[54] AN EXPLANATION OF THE UNIVERSE WOULD NEED TO BE:

(a) self canceling

(b) found in the roots of our great religions

(d) found in the texts of the major works of philosophy

(e) something requiring deep knowledge of all things

[55] CRONOMETER - CLOCK - HIT

BOSS -?= - GRASS

[56] QUEENSLAND is to THE DISTRICT OF MORETON BAY as

THE ?= ?= is to THE HONEY POT MOUNTAINS

[57] YOU HAVE SEEN THE DANCE is to WATCHING YOU as

THROUGH THE ?=.....S THE ?=....S ARE ?=......G is to

SOON FREEDOM COMES

[58] RENE THOM is to CATASTROPHE as ?=.......E .....S is to GROUP

[59] ?=..OW ?=.Y ?=...E ?=.O ?=.E is to LOOKING FOR HIS FUN as

HAVE A HUNCH is to BACK IN THE EARLY DAYS

[60] THE CONCEPT OF INFINITE INTELLIGENCE IS:

(a) beset with difficulties of a philosophical nature

(b) false because it is non-relatable to finites

(d) meaningless on the human plane

(e) undefinable in logico-mathematical terms

=END OF TEST [3]=

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Candidate TEST [4]

– by Christopher P. Harding (Australian Mega Society Member for 20+ years)

[ 1] WHICH IS NOT AN INTERNATIONAL PAPER SIZE ?

(1)A0 (2)A3 (3)A4 (4)A6 (5)A8 (6)A9 (7)A10 (8)A12

[ 2] It sounded like ``YOU ANN''. What country was it ?=

[ 3] ?=........ TABLE is to BUREAU as HANDBAG is to PURSE

[ 4] `THE TRAGEDY OF THE MOON' is to ISAAC ASIMOV as

"THE MURDERER'S WHO'S WHO" is to F.H.H.?=....E AND ROBIN ?=...LL

[ 5] 34 49 169 256 ?=

[ 6] ROYAL ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERS is to R.E.M.E.

as ?=......... is to CANTAB

[ 7] YOU MAY RAISE THE WIND BUT MUST NOT CAPTURE SAME OR YOU MIGHT FIND

YOURSELF WITH A ?=.....R !.

[ 8] 13492577 147134 785 137 101 ?=

[ 9] WHICH OF THOSE BELOW IS THE ODD MAN OUT ?.

(1)BRITISH (2)PORTUGESE (3)SPANISH (4)ITALIANS

[10] JUDO is to 30 as CLASSICAL BALLET is to ?=

[11] URANOMETRY is to STAR ?=....S as URSA MAJOR is to THE GREAT BEAR

[12] WRITE IN THE NEXT 5 DIGITS IN THE SEQUENCE

1425523233559856[?=.....]

[13] FILL IN THE NUMBER BELOW ?

GROUP OF [ .. ] GREAT BOOKS

[14] WHAT is to GOES as COMES is ?=.....D

[15] AND is to ATQUE as OR is to ?=

[16] `PEARS FAMILY QUIZ BOOK' is to GYLES BRANDRETH as

`MOBY DICK' is to ?=_ ?=_

[17] ?=.A.H.E.S is to COLONISTS OF NORTH CAROLINA as ALLELOCHEMICALS is

to DEFENSIVE AGENTS USED BY PLANTS AGAINST INSECTS.

[18] REFERRING TO AUTHORITY is to AD VERECUNDIAM

as TO BUCK AUTHORITY is to KICK ?____________________

[19] EMANUEL LASKER is to CHESS as ?=...E ?=.....Y is to A MAN MUST FIGHT

[20] TODAY is to HODIE as SLOWLY is to ?=

[21] THREE OF THE 9 WORDS BELOW ARE CONCEPTUALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE

OTHER 6. WHICH 3 ?.

(1).x.u.g.te (2).r.m.i.es (3).c.a.o (4).a.c.c.e

(5).m.r.m.t.r (6).o.i.n.h.a (7).n.e.p.l.te (8).a.u.a

(9).a.s.m

[22] ENGLISH CHATTERING CLASSES is to CHATTERING CLASSES as

DIVINE COMEDY is to ...X ........S

[23] MARY OF EGYPT is to [?=......] WOMEN as ST. GENEVIEVE

is to PARIS / ATTILA THE HUN

[24] MATHEMATICAL TRIPOS / HIGHEST is to [?=.....]R WRANGLER as

LOWEST is to WOODEN SPOON

[25] SEA ROBBER is to VIKING as MARKET is to ?=

[26] HUMPHREY DAVY is to MICHAEL FARADAY as

`ON THE TIP OF A PEN' is to ?=

[27] DANJON is to DARKNESS as GREY is to ?=.....S

[28] PRISCILLA is to AQUILA as XANTHIPPE is to ?=........

[29] What race of people were to have boiling water thrown in their

faces. ?=......S

[30] FILL IN THE MISSING WORDS BELOW:

day

shell

shock

[31] ?=K..B ?=T...ING is to OUTSIDE MARKET HOURS

as MARK OR MARKING is to LONDON STOCK MARKET

[32] 4-5-7-20-21-66-6-22-38-127-5-19-55-188-4-[??= ]-72-249-3-16

[33] Fill in the missing letters.

M.T.C.R.US is to .E.T.CLE as ..NTAD is to .E.T.T.NIC

[34] BATMAN is to MELBOURNE as `THE LUNAR MEN' is to ?=

[35] INDIAN FIRE-GOD is to ?= as PATRON GODDESS OF SICILY

is to CERES

[36] TO RUN AGAINST is to PALINDROME as THE COUNTRYSIDE is to ?=

[37] WHEN A BRAWL DEVELOPS IN A NIGHT CLUB IT IS BEST TO:

(a) cut the power to the music

(b) move in the heavy weight bouncers straight away

(d) telephone the police and get help immediately

(e) try to separate the fools from each other

[38] `THE SECRET OF LIFE' is to CRICK & WATSON as

`THE DARK LADY OF THE DNA' is to ? `R_________ F__________'

[39] `BY BREAD ALONE' is to LESTER BROWN as

`ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT' is to ERICH MARIA ?=......UE

[40] HENRIETTA MARIA is to CHARLES the 1st as MATHILDE is to ?=......

[41] VITAMIN ?=. is to ANEMIA as VITAMIN U is to ULCERS

[42] PSYCHIATRIST is to ALIENIST as HIGH BORN LADY is to ?=....

[43] ALISTER COOK is to `LETTER FROM AMERICA' as PATRICK MOORE

is to `... ... .. NIGHT'

[44] `THE TRIANGLE FACTORY' is to USA as `SAUCY MARRY' is to ?=

[45] .R.P.A.E is to .E.A.H.SE as .N.P.A.E is to ?=

[46] `A STITCH IN TIME SAVES NINE' is to ENGLAND

as `THE BOTTOM WILL FALL OUT OF YOUR BUCKET' is to ?

[47] HOSPITAL (BOARD) STIFF

demand (?= ) spiral

[48] POLYANDRY is to HUSBAND as ?= ..LYM.Z.. is to BREASTS

[49] WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING IS THE CONCEPTUALLY MOST DIFFICULT ?.

(a) hent (b) rhigosis (c) rhombold (d) shapoo (e) sirenic

[50] WHICH WORD FROM THE FOLLOWING LIST DOES NOT BELONG

WITH THE OTHERS AND WHAT IS THE WORD ?

(a) .c.r.ic (b) .i.t.ibe (c) .y.e.b.r.an (d) .d.um (e) .a.t.lle

(f) .o.g.ant (g) .ail

[51] WHICH TWO WORDS ARE THE SAME IN MEANING ?

(a)boat (b)car (c)fence (d)glove (e)moon (f)radio (g)spade

[52] RED is to BLACK as YELLOW is to ?=

[53] ERNEST WILLIAM BROWN is to MOTION as ?=......S .....N .....Y

is to CITIES

[54] VENUS is to H as ROULETTE is to ?=

[55] DROVING ROUTES is to THE LONG PADDOCK as BODY SNATCHERS

is to ............ MEN

[56] I WOULD DESCRIBE MYSELF AS:

clue: there is a single correct answer !

(a) helpfull (b) honest (c) likeable (d) quick thinking

(e) sincere (f) smart (g) thoughtful (h) trustworthy

(i) wearing

[57] In the following analogy choose the single word in each group

that will make the most sensible arrangement you can find in the

two groups of words given. Put a circle around each word in each

case

MIDDLE CLASSES is to (APPRECIATE; ASK; CHOOSE; DENIGH; QUESTION;

SEEK; WISH)

as UPPER CLASSES is to (BLESS; FORSEE; IGNORE; KNOW; SENSE; TRY;

WANT;)

[58] Fill in the missing number below

PBAALRAONUQCUHIEN is to ?= as SPTAARNAHSOAPNEG is to 44

[59] ?=....C SALT // Clue: [S.A.. I.T...E..U.L WI.]

[60] HYPOTHESIS is to START as ?=..E.I..E is to RIGHT

=END OF TEST [4]=

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Name-that-Author

by Ron Yannone

As mentioned in another article, as editor I am persistently on the prowl for enticing, novel subject matter for our “flagship product,” the Mega Society’s Noesis journal. Here, I stumbled on an invaluable resource, “Bartlett’s Roget’s Thesaurus,” ISBN 0-316-10138-9, copyright 1996 by Little, Brown and Company (Inc.). Embedded throughout the book are famous quotes. I selected a small subset of my favorite quotes for you to name (identify) the author. Have fun!

1. “I call architecture frozen music.” __________________

2. “Let spades be trumps! She said, and trumps they were.” ______________

3. “Brevity is the soul of wit.” ____________________

4. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” ___________________

5. “We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.” __________________

6. “The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest till it has gained a hearing.” ________________________

7. “The highest intellects, like the tops of mountains, are the first to catch and to reflect the dawn.” ________________________

8. “A stand can be made against invasion by an army; no stand can be made against invasion by an idea.” _______________________

9. “An idea isn’t responsible for the people who believe in it.” ______________

10. “Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” __________________

11. “’Tis a lesson you should heed, / Try, try again.” ___________________

12. “Promises and pie-crust are made to be broken.” __________________

13. “No nation was ever ruined by trade.” ______________________

14. “Space isn’t remote at all. It’s only an hour’s drive away if your car could go straight upwards.” ____________________________

15. “Space – the final frontier.” ________________________

16. “Give me a firm place to stand, and I will move the earth.” ______________

17. “The original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.” ___________________________

18. “What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.” _____________

19. “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” ______________

20. “There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up.” _________

21. “Music, when soft voices die, / Vibrates in the memory.” ___________

22. “I propose to consider the question, ‘Can machines think?’” _________

23. “Who has seen the wind? / Neither you nor I; / But when the trees bow down their heads, / The wind is passing by.” __________________

24. “As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.” _______________

25. “Why is philosophy so complicated? It ought to be entirely simple.” _______

26. “The history of the world is but the biography of great men.” ___________

“Uncommon Words” Matching Quiz (answers)

by Ron Yannone

A	agerasia	V	a great-grandmother’s great-grandmother
B	alforja	F	to strike; to scare; to mystify
C	alnight	FF	insomnia
D	amyous	C	a thick candle that will burn all night
E	ateknia	Q	flowering again
F	awhape	AA	crazy, wild, extreme
G	causeuse	R	to relax after a heavy meal
H	cuvee	A	youthful appearance in an older person
I	imperdible	X	strange, odd; shy or awkward; extraordinary
J	internecion	K	resting against something
K	innixion	P	something traded for something else
L	noology	GG	nagging criticism
M	oriel	Y	bashful, modest
N	orfgild	U	to strengthen
O	quar	G	a sofa for two people
P	quo	H	wine produced by blending different vintages
Q	remontant	D	without strength
R	rizzle	DD	to concede
S	roinous	B	a leather bag; saddlebag
T	sapidity	S	mean, nasty, and contemptible
U	stoom	E	childlessness
V	tritavia	CC	avidly; readily
W	unwemmed	I	incapable of being lost
X	unco	Z	striped, like a ribbon
Y	verecund	L	the science of intuition
Z	vittate	W	unblemished
AA	wowf	J	mutual destruction
BB	xenodochy	M	a large bay window
CC	yarely	T	flavorful; tastiness
DD	yette	O	to fill or block
EE	zenzizenzizenzic	BB	hospitality
FF	zoara	N	restitution of goods stolen in the daytime
GG	zoilism	EE	the eighth power of a number

Bayesian Estimate of IQs

by Dean Inada

Given a list of people and questions showing who has answered which questions correctly, we’d like to rank the people by intelligence using only Bayesian inference. Say we have a given distribution P₀(IQ=y) representing our estimate of the probability that a person’s IQ is y, and say we know the probability that a person with an IQ of y will answer a question correctly P(A correct | IQ = y). We want to be able to get a revised estimate P₁(IQ=y) after the person answers a question correctly. (If we take y to represent rank within the population of test takers, we can take our a priori estimate of P₀(IQ=y) to be a constant function).

We'd like to revise our estimate of P_o(IQ=y) given that the person answers question A correctly (or, without loss of generality, incorrectly).

Define

Bayes' Theorem:

we have

(Note that we need not make the assumption that P(A correct | IQ = y) is monotonic in y.)

Define :

In the continuous case

)

So far, we have used only Bayesian inference, but if we now want to estimate we may have a difficulty. Even if we know , we don't know that

If we could define IQ=x as capturing every aspect of a persons question answering ability we may be able to assume independence, but we know there exist questions A,B and people x,y such that person x answers question A incorrectly and B correctly while person y answers question A correctly and B incorrectly.

For example, examining the answers to the Mega Test, we found clusters of people doing well in the verbal questions and clusters of people doing well on the non-verbal questions.

If we could assume independence then

And

(note that if we assume for all questions A,B and if all our are identical linear functions in y for all questions A, then the medians of each persons IQ distribution will rank the people in the same order that you would get by ranking people by the proportion of questions they correctly answer.

Then, there's the issue of how to determine in the first place. If we had a large population of people known to have IQ=x, and we asked them all question A, we could simply estimate

Since at best we have an estimate of a persons IQ that we can express as for all x

I had the thought that we might estimate as

But Chris Cole had a completely different idea based in the assumption that problems have thresholds:

Let's assume that problems have a threshold. If the problem's threshold is x, then no one with intelligence less than x can answer the problem correctly, and everyone with intelligence greater than x can answer the problem correctly. Let's say we don't know the problem's threshold, so we express this ignorance via a distribution function q(x). If someone with a known distribution p(x) of intelligence answers the problem correctly, then we can revise the estimate that the threshold is x with Bayes' Theorem:

The probability that a person will answer correctly given that the question has threshold x is the same as the probability that the person has intelligence at least equal to x. This is

The probability that the person is correct is

where

So the revised distribution in the case the person answers correctly is

and in the case of an incorrect answer

The function =

To summarize the equations

The probability that the person is incorrect is

where

So the revised distribution in the case the person answers correctly is

and in the case of an incorrect answer

The function

To summarize the equations

= =

= integral(t = 0 to x, q(t))

If p(x) is a Gaussian

If the Gaussians are disjoint, meaning they do not overlap significantly, then

which is the table function that is zero except for the region between the mean intelligence of the most intelligent incorrect scorer and the mean intelligence of the least intelligent correct scorer.

It is not clear how my idea and Chris Cole’s idea are related. (Although they do give identical answers when the p(x) are disjoint).

Dear Editor – Noesis (from Christopher P. Harding – member in Australia)

Re: Chris Cole's “Speculations on Physics VI” Article in March Noesis #167

He asked: ~....What would the universe be like if it were smaller? How would the departure from invariance show up in the laws of physics?~ and ~One way the universe could be smaller was discussed in the last installment. It may be that the universe is not composed of infinitely many points. If this were true then perhaps this lack of scale invariance shows up as a needed change to the laws of physics. One would expect the new terms in the laws to be proportional to the fixed scale. Could this be the origin of the laws of quantum mechanics?~

May I now quote from published and unpublished writings of mine from my files

here?.

I wrote on March 7th 2000 later published that year in part:

~......In my view other laws will operate across the boundaries linking various dimensions some of these beyond space and time. The laws of the Universe would appear to be of two types if we accept this as a starting point. One ”binds'' dimensional structures together and are in my view the ‘true laws'. The others are out-come derivatives operating within set structures whose functional modes derive from the way other things are: they as it were have no choice but to behave the way they do; that is part of their constraint.

In this they give rise to the fine detail of existence. .......With gravity operating across dimensions, no location within a simple accessible structure will be at all possible. It will however be ‘located' in this sense AS A CONTRADICTION in the translation from one dimension to another where these dimensions possess different expressed properties. The properties of space are different from those of time. Time is for example one directional. The force of gravity reflects this attribute of time when expressed in spatial terms.

ONE MAY SAY THEN THAT TRANSLATION ACCROSS DIMENSIONS WILL LEAD TO APPARENT CONCEPTUAL CONTRADICTIONS THE CONTRADICTIONS BEING TERMED LAWS FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE.

It is what ‘falls out' of the abstraction we term the world. All primary laws will similarly spring into existence seemingly from this ‘nowhere'. Perhaps collectively we might explore other possibilities; my best guess being that quite simple equations will be found to allow similar ‘abstract account keeping' to that found between the space-time equations of general relativity.......~

It later occurred to me: ~....that the ‘hidden variables' of Quantum Mechanics

are at the ‘core' of the translation process.~

Physicists say that space and time dissolve into the ‘Quantum foam' on scales below 10 to the minus 60 cm. At this level space and time become mixed up - and quite indistinguishable. It is said no one knows what ‘laws' operate at this level. My mind jumped on a step - the hypothesized `hidden variables' would fit the bill!. This suggesting ~a check sum~ for the universes accounting procedures.

A friend Robert William Berry of Rockhampton Australia suggested “There is really only one dimension,” Namely, the 4 dimensions we are familiar with are expressions of this single dimension but in different ways. Can it be that we are simply considering degrees of ‘boundedness'? Rob Berry proposed that higher-order structures arose from the reuse of the first dimension. [Dimensions, themselves, as one would suppose – merely folding of lower order dimensions in terms of their own self-same order state. Thus a two-dimensional structure arises from a one-dimensional structure and a three-dimensional structure from a two-dimensional structure, and so on presumably to some indefinite point.]

I would propose going one better, and counting a dimension in computing terms

as the ~starting addresses~ related to the factor of ~quantum decoherance~.

Bob Berry also suggested to me that the speed of light varied between the

Galaxies. That is, in ‘deep space' this lead me to suggest that variation in light speed might account for the 3K background radiation of the universe. Speed variations would lead to persistence giving rise to “permanent features'' of the universe from our perspective.

One could also see in this the need to ~defrag~ the universe like one would do to ones computer files. Could we find evidence of this at work at the ‘sub sub-atomic level'?

On Thursday 24-4-2003 I wrote:

Is it possible that all the dimensions are the same; i.e., the oddities of time do not stand apart from those properties of space? By this it is supposed that the 4th dimension is seen as an ‘anchor point' in the evaluation of the 3 dimensions of what we ordinarily regard as spatial ones. To the 5th dimension, the 4th dimension appears spatial in its property for then the anchor point has shifted.

Thus, to the 5th dimension time becomes two-way. A 4^th-dimensional being is able to gaze back and forth across ‘space'; just as a 5^th-dimensional being would be able to gaze forward and backwards in time: the future present and past being

as one on a continual landscape or as a ‘static' picture. ‘Events' then do not ‘occur' but are ‘transcribed' from the relative vantage points of ‘bundles' of dimensional properties. In order to ‘possess' some `event' it would seem only necessary to engage in a ‘construction' i.e., the making of the structure in order to ‘frame' what one wished to possess? Is then the REAL WORLD a choice in construction of outcomes?

Will not then the ~true picture~ of the world be domination of quantum weirdness over that of relativity? Is it not also likely that weirdness taken to any degree is the only ultimate truth; that everything must of necessity be contained in complexity: the `rules' of the world always being a step beyond the outcomes which they give rise to? Thus understanding of the Quantum must come from an understanding of the nature of the dimensions and their properties..........~

And on 25-11-2003: ~The problems raised by the uncertainty principle arise as a result of intercepting a 4-dimensional particle using another 4-dimensional particle; suggesting a way round quantum uncertainty would be to use a 5-dimensional particle to ‘view' a 4-dimensional particle.~

The answer is there in our speculations some where; putting it together will however turn out to be the difficulty?

Chris Harding

31-March-2004

P.O. Box 5271

Central Mail Centre #4702

AUSTRALIA

Chess-ercizes

by Ron Yannone and Dr. Miodrag Petkovic

This exercise is extracted from an excellent Dover Publication, Inc. book, Mathematics and Chess by Miodrag Petkovic, ISBN 0-486-29432-3, 1997. Cost is a staggering $5.95. His email address: msp@junis.ni.ac.yu

PROBLEM 1 – Shinkman’s Zig-Zag Problems. Created by W. Shinkman (1847-1933), a great American composer of chess problems, these three famous zig-zag problems, called replacing games, have to be solved in the minimum number of moves.

Problem 1.a		White Queen
(26 moves)	White Bishop	White King
	White Bishop	White Rook

Problem 1.b			White Pawn
(27 moves)		White Rook	White Pawn
	White Pawn	White Bishop	White King
Black Knight		White Bishop	White Rook

Problem 1.c			White King
(45 moves)			White Rook
		White Knight	White Bishop
White Queen	White Bishop	White Rook

Problem 1.a	The king comes to square a1 without crossing square b2 (26 moves)
Problem 1.b	The white king takes the black knight, which is immovable. Naturally, the king must avoid square c2, which is threatened by the black knight (27 moves)
Problem 1.c	The white king and queen exchange places while all other pieces return to their initial positions (45 moves)

Name-that-Author (answers)

by Ron Yannone

1	Johann Wolfgang von Goethe	14	Fred Hoyle
2	Alexander Pope	15	Gene Roddenberry
3	William Shakespeare	16	Archimedes
4	Franklin D. Roosevelt	17	Francois Rene’ de Chateaubriand
5	Albert Einstein	18	Tacitus
6	Sigmund Freud	19	G. K. Chesterton
7	Thomas Babington Macaulay	20	Rex Stout
8	Victor Hugo	21	Percy Bysshe Shelley
9	Don Marquis	22	Alan Turing
10	Oliver Wendell Holmes	23	Christina Rossetti
11	Thomas H. Palmer	24	Albert Einstein
12	Jonathan Swift	25	Ludwig Wittgenstein
13	Benjamin Franklin	26	Thomas Carlyle

Chess-ercizes - continued

by Ron Yannone and Dr. Miodrag Petkovic

PROBLEM 2 – Pistol Theme. The so-called “pistol theme” was composed in 1911 by the outstanding English chess thinker T. R. Dowson. Like Shinkman’s problem, the pistol theme was also included in Zalepukin’s encyclopedia of chess problems [Kiev: Zdorov’ya, 1982]. The board has an unusual shape – like a pistol. Like Shinkman’s zig-zag problems, this Dowson problem can be regarded as a replacement puzzle. How can White play and force mate in his 21^st move? The abbreviations are BKING (black king), BB (black bishop), WKING (white king), WB (white bishop), WKNIG (white knight), WR (white rook), and WP (white pawn).

BKING	BB	WKING	WB	WKNIG
				WR	WP	WP
					WR	WKNIG

Dowson’s “pistol theme” – mate in 21 moves

“Adjective Jumble” Exercise

by Ron Yannone and Eugene Ehrlich

Adjectives form a powerful complement to our “communication arsenal.” The editor role for the Mega Society’s Noesis journal has my mind constantly engaged in conjuring up new ideas for creative articles. With Noesis as our “flagship” product, it’s exciting to be on the prowl for ways to enhance the variety of topics that we can provide our readers.

As such, I browse almost weekly at the local Barnes & Noble bookstore for interesting ideas. Recently, a book by Eugene Ehrlich titled “The Highly Selective Dictionary of Golden Adjectives for the Extraordinarily Literate” caught my eye. When I browsed through the book in the store, many ideas came to mind. I purchased the book and called Eugene at his home for permission to use about 20 of his examples, with a few progressive twists, for an article in Noesis. Eugene was fully compliant and said “Go ahead!” All he requested was a copy of the article. Eugene’s hometown was given in the back inside jacket of the book and using whitepages.com – I found his address and home phone number. Eugene’s address is 1166 Old White Plains Road, Mamaroneck, NY 10543-1052 and his phone number is (914) 698-5397. Eugene was formerly a member of the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, is the coeditor of The Oxford English Dictionary and the author of dozens of books, including Veni, Vidi, Vici and the classic bestseller Amo, Amas, Amat and More.

In his book, Eugene gives example sentences to illustrate the use of each adjective. I modified about 20 of these examples, by replacing the adjective with a JUMBLE in the sentence for the curious reader to resolve. I apologize in advance if there is more than one adjective that fills the slot for the letters given, but chances are the adjective is unique for the sentences offered and JUMBLE options provided.

The exercise is progressive. First I simply list the 20 adjectives in JUMBLE format. Next, I give the 20 sentences with blanks where the adjectives are placed. Thirdly, if this is not enough information, I give the same 20 sentences with the adjective JUMBLE placed in its slot. The answers are given elsewhere in this Noesis issue.

PART 1 – Unravel these Adjective JUMBLES
A	xrlpio	K	cvtai
B	rxluaoi	L	yahcr
C	cuussfo	M	nrtai
D	emmlrraoa	N	ccteapn
E	iztomcy	O	ecpniee
F	eaaldd	P	enjjeu
G	eogsnie	Q	ndscraio
H	lcnsiueuomto	R	sxfuuloe
I	stooie	S	huleco
J	hdysi	T	ilhaotarncs

International Contest of Logical Problems

by Albert Frank [Belgium] and introduction by Ron Yannone

In reply to my inquiry with Albert Frank for a short BIO – he sent the following.

Albert Frank – Belgium

I was born in 1943 somewhere on the hidden face of the moon.

In 1965 I received a Masters degree in mathematics (option: physics, general relativity) at the Liège University (Belgium). I became a chess master and won the 1968 Brussel's chess championship, during my holidays (vacations).

From 1966 to 1994, I was teacher in universities in seven different Central Africa countries. I conducted several research projects. I add a short note concerning the main research program. Unfortunately, I could not receive a Ph.D. because at this time in Belgium, to receive a Ph.D. in a field, it was obligatory to have other diplomas in the same field.

I was also, among a lot of hobbies, flight instructor, bridge player and puzzles creator. I have been chess champion of 7 countries (the level was low).

In 1994, I had to escape from Rwanda, when the horror started there . . . and I lost a lot of masterpiece work I had created. I came back to Belgium. I found a job as statistician in a ministry – but very boring assignment. I retired few months ago.

I joined Mensa - it was a big disappointment for me. Then I joined Glia (the 3-s society created in Holland by Paul Cooijmans). And it was nearly the first time in my life I could communicate with, what I refer to, as great people.

In March 2000, I took the initiative to invite, in Brussels, several "top IQ people", including Nik Lygeros. It was a fantastic meeting. After that, there where several meetings in Paris (organized by Steve Coy), in Holland and in Brazil.

In January 2002, I went to Seattle, WA to visit friends I knew from Africa. And I was invited to visit Fred Vaughan, who is now a big friend – and editor of the Prometheus Society’s journal Gift of Fire. In August 2004, I'll go for the 5th time to Seattle. It is so fantastic to communicate with people like Fred, Bob Seitz, Steve Schussler and others!

I have written about 50 articles, and a book which will be published (in French and in English - a great translation made by Fred Vaughan). You will see the announcement for my book in a forthcoming issue of Gift of Fire.

INTERNATIONAL CONTEST OF LOGICAL SEQUENCES 2002 – 2003

Albert Frank

The following series need very little mathematical knowledge and are culture free. Some are extremely difficult. Each answer has to be clearly explained, in English or in French. The solutions must be sent before March 1st 2003, by e-mail (with subject « International contest 2002 – 2003 ») to albert.frank@skynet.be or by mail:

Albert Frank

13 Clos du Parnasse / box 45

1050 Brussels

BELGIUM

The winner will receive – a gift of the Sigma society – the software “Tiger 14”, one of the leading chess player for the moment.

Good luck !

1) 2, 6, 15, ?, 55, ?, 119

2) 4, ?, 5, 2, 6, 10, 3, 7, 6

3) 1, 3, 9, 9, 9, 9, 18, 18, 18, 27, 27, ?, ?

4) 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 4, 2, 0, ?, ?

5) 6, 3, 20, 7, ?, 117, ?, 114

6) 6, 7, 2, 1, 5, 9, ?, ?, ?

7) ?, -1, -1, -1, 0, 2, 6, 13, 25, ?

8) 2614534, 4?45??

9) 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, ?, 16, 23

10) 1010, 202, 132, 130, 122, 114, 106, ?, 90

11) 4, 9, 7, 13, ?, 16, 19, ?, 16, 13

12) Why are there two * in this finite sequence?

1, 5, 9, 6, 3, *, 2, 4, *, 7, 8, 9

13) 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, ?, ?

14) 4, 6, 10, ?, 3, 7, 15, 19, 11, ?

15) 6, 14, 6, 5, 40, 90, 104, ?

16) -1, -1, 1, 17, 109, 707, ?

17) 1, 2, 3, 6, ?, 6, 3, 6, 1

18) 0, 1, 2, 3, 1, 1, ?, 3, ?, 9

19) 11, 23, 44, 56, 48, 67, ?

20) 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 4, 2, 2, 1, 2, ?, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, ?, 2, 1

Fourth International Contest of Logical Problems

(organized by the Ludomind society)

The three previous international contests where organised by Albert Frank and/or Philippe Jacqueroux. This time, the questions where made by several members of the Ludomind society. It’s a difficult contest. Send you answers in one single mail before June 30^th 2004 by e-mail to albert.frank@skynet.be (subject: international contest) or by post to:

Albert Frank

13 Clos du Parnasse / box 45

B 1050 Brussels

BELGIUM

Good luck!

1) 6, 4, 26, 9, 60, ?

2) 4, 7, 11, 12, 14, 18, 20, ?

3) We draw points on the circumference of a circle. With pencils of four different colors, connect all the others by straight colored lines. What is the maximum number of points such that no monochromatic triangle appears?

4) From the vertex A of an equilateral triangle A, a laser with thickness zero departs towards the side BC, with angle of 45º measured with the side AB. When it arrives at BC, it is reflected (perfect reflection) towards AC and so on. What's the minimum number of reflections for the laser to hit a vertex of the triangle? Explain why.

5) 8, 65, 4226, 17859077, ?

6) 4, 4913, 1681, 300763, ?

7) 8, 33, 40, 128, 115, ?

8) In a building, there is an hexagonal room with one door on each wall. Each door provides a way to a different room (six rooms in addition to the hexagonal one). Seen from the interior all of the six rooms are absolutely identical in content and dimension. They are empty except for a light bulb on the ceiling. (All bulbs are identical and have only two states (lit or extinguished). The four walls inside each room are smooth and white with a door on one of the walls opening to the central room. The rooms are completely insulated with nothing leaving the room unless the door is opened. (There is no keyhole, no sound escapes, etc..) In front of each door, seen from the central room, is a button (a total of six buttons). There is no interaction between buttons. The hexagonal room is not affected by the action of the buttons; the hexagonal room is not important to the problem. A person must discover the function of each button with regard to its associated room. One does not know beforehand if the light in the room is on or off. (The rooms may be in different states at the beginning). Each button can be actuated only one time and remains blocked thereafter. The person can not actuate the button after having entered a room (that would be too easy). In each room there is a sheet of paper and a pencil; the person must write what is discovered before going out of the room. The doors are marked with a unique number from 1 to 6 and one must start with door 1. A person must approach the first button, press it and enter the room. He then must document the function of that button. He then must leave and approach the second button, press it, enter the second room, and document the function of the second button. He must proceed in this way through the third, the fourth, and the fifth. He must finish with the sixth to complete the task. Given that the explanation for each event will be different and the observations are always correct, what must be the outcome of the sixth button?

Note that the man is alone in the building, and that there is no problem with the electrical power supply in the building.

9) 7, 7, 8, 8, 7, 8, 8, 8, 7, 8, 5, 5, ?, ?, 5, 5

10) Find a way, based on simple probability theory, to get the following finite series:

3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 4

11) Find a way, based on simple probability theory, to get the following finite series:

2, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2

12) 24642, 24976, 28072, ?, ?, 68476, 73372, 73926

13) 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 1, 1, ?, 2, 4, 1, ?, 2, 1, 3, 1, 1, 1, ?, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 1, ?, 1, 3, 3, 4, 1, ?, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, ?

14) 2, 4, 7, 10, 7, ? (This is not a numerical series).

15) What does the following encrypted word mean and how is it obtained?

LYFKNA

16) 1, 2, 8, 2, 2, 2, 7, 8, 2, ?, ?

17) 52, 72, 11, 23, 31, 31, 15, ?, ?

18) Jacques decides to make an excursion of two days. The first day, he will leave at 7h in the morning to climb a mountain and to arrive on top at 7h in the evening. There is only one path that goes to the mountain. He will sleep on the mountain, and the following day will go down, leaving at 7h in the morning and arriving back home at 7h in the evening. To go as to return, he is not in a hurry, sometimes walks, sometimes races, stop several times to eat, at any hours. What is the probability that he passes, the two days, at a same point precisely at the same hour ?

19) 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, ?, ?

20) Craig has landed on an island of fun-loving logicians and doesn’t know how to find his way home. He asks the first person he meets in the street for help, and this native leads him to a secret, mystical place with a large stone engraved with the following drawing:

“I want to go South”, explains Craig. “Is this drawing correct?”

“Judge for yourself”, answers the native. “I can only tell you that one of the arrows points south, but I cannot tell you which one. I cannot tell you how many arrows point in the right direction either, or you would know which way to go.”

Fortunately, Craig was quite bright and worked out which arrow pointed south.

Can you figure it out too?

-
Chess-ercizes - continued

by Ron Yannone and Dr. Miodrag Petkovic

PROBLEM 3 – Kriegsspiel Problem. Kriegsspiel (a German word meaning “war game”) is one of the most interesting variants of chess. This game originated in Switzerland in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Later it was adapted for a chessboard by an English journalist M. H. Tample. Today Kriegsspiel requires three chessboards: one for each of the players and one for the referee. In the beginning of the game, the pieces are placed on their initial squares as in the standard chess game. The player’s do not see the opponent’s board, so Kriegsspiel is a kind of invisible chess. The referee keeps track of the positions on both boards, performs the moves of both players, announces whether or not a move is possible (if possible then it must be made), and monitors the correctness of all positions and moves. Also, the referee announces the taking of a chess piece without stating precisely what has been taken. In some variants of Kriegsspiel, the referee can offer additional information, but of a limited character (an attack to a king, taking by “en passant”). The players take turns, each trying to mate his opponent, but the real positions and the complete course of the game can be seen only on the referee’s board.

Intuition, tactics, and strategy, often based on attempted (but impossible) moves, especially by the king (which must not move on the attacked square), play a great role in Kriegsspiel. Even very simple positions in ordinary chess become complicated in Kriegsspiel. Here we illustrate a very simple ending. The black king is on the g or h vertical; its exact position is unknown to White. How can White play and force mate as soon as possible without knowing the exact position of the black king?

WROOK
	BKING	BKING
	BKING	BKING
	BKING	BKING
	BKING	BKING
	BKING	BKING

		WKING

PART 2 – Place your un-JUMBLE-ed adjectives in the following sentences

1. “Many of the _____ children disappointed their parents by refusing outright to enter the gloomy caves the family had traveled so far to see.”

2. “They expressed themselves in such _____ language during the negotiation that we wondered if they were trying to sabotage us.”

3. “Try as I would, the conjurer’s _____ finger work with cards had me thoroughly confused in no time at all.”

4. “He always chose to go to pubs that attracted a generous assortment of _____ girls.”

5. “Now, in our haste to speak and write of so-called genderless everythings, we are treated to _____ fashions, unisex barber shops, and his-and-her cigar clubs.”

6. “The Russian ballerina’s lithe body moved with a _____ grace rarely found in someone her age.”

7. “He took no notice of his wife’s depressed state until he realized she had abandoned the colorful prints she formerly enjoyed and was wearing nothing but _____ clothes.”

8. “His maundering conversation was surprisingly _____ for someone who held such an important position.”

9. “There was something _____ about the caretaker we had recently hired, and we regretted having entrusted our house keys to him.”

10. “After we enjoyed the _____ pleasures of the Greek galleries, we sampled the armoreal offerings of the medieval rooms.”

11. “Many of the men and women seen smoking behind the student center are not students at all, but _____ dropouts with nothing better to do.”

12. “When confronted by clear evidence of _____ behavior, the two scoundrels fell to their knees almost simultaneously, each pointing at the other and saying, ‘He told me to do it.’”

13. “By May I was gratified to find that many students had learned to prune their _____ sentences.”

14. “Ruth is a happy child, almost always _____ in demeanor, loving to tell and hear jokes.”

15. “The lecturer’s _____ manner intimidated his students.”

16. “The aging actress was still perfectly _____ when she appeared in public even though she had not made a movie in years.”

17. “He thought he was impressing her with accounts of his accomplishments, but actually she was repelled by his _____ rambling.”

18. “We all wondered at Gary’s strange taste in candidates for marriage partner, his _____ litmus test apparently being whether or not a young woman could cook and keep house.”

19. “Much to the surprise of Samantha’s ardent admirers, her most important _____ pronouncements, so characteristic of her, went unnoticed until long after her death.”

20. “The pubs in her neighborhood were closed down by an inspector who mistakenly believed the beer served there was afflicted with a _____ disease.”

If PART 2 was asking too much, THEN proceed to PART 3. Otherwise, go check your answers elsewhere in this Noesis issue.

Candidate TEST [5]

– by Christopher P. Harding (Australian Mega Society Member for 20+ years)

[ 1] LINDEN TREE is to ?=.... as BERENICES HAIR is to COMA BERENICES

[ 2] `DON'T GIVE' is `CONTINENTAL' as ?=`......' is to `BRICK ON'

[ 3] `THE LORD OF THE DYNAMOS' is to H.G.WELLS

as `PARADISE LOST' is to ?=...N ?=.....N

[ 4] THE EVOLUTION OF INSECTS HAS BEEN TO ?=...R ......R ....S

[ 5] SPODE is to ASTRONOMER as LIPPMAN is to ?=

(1)ask (2)judge (3)question (4)recall (5)risk (6)test (7)think

[ 6] BERENICES HAIR is to COMA BERENICES as CAUSTIC SODA is to ?=

[ 7] Which one below is unlike the other three ?.

(1)ABTORSION (2)ADTORSION (3)ENSTROPHE (4)WALLEYE.

[ 8] RENE DESCARTES is to THE RAINBOW as APHRODITE is to ?=

[ 9] ARTHUR C.CLARKE is to ?=..I ....A as ENGLAND is to

GOLD COINAGE/1344/EDWARD III

[10] `WIND IN THE WILLOWS' is to KENNETH GRAHAME as

`WORDS AND PLACES' is to ?=....C ?=.....R

[11] ALL THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE ARE ?=......RALS

Leonardo da Vinci Picasso Col Porter

Harpo Marx Paul McCartney Chaplin

W.C. Fields Garbo Marilyn Monroe

Danny Kaye Judy Garland Ben Hogan

Jimmy Connors John McEnroe Martina Navratilova

Babe Ruth.

[12] MANOMETER is to FLUIDS as ?=.......R is to MILLAGE

[13] SOMETIMES is to ALIQUANDO as SOMEONE is to ?=

[14] GLOSSARY is to TEXT as GLOSSA is to ?=.....E

[15] DISTANCE is to BOGARDUS as SILENCE is to ?=.....

[16] FILL IN THE NUMBER BELOW ?

CONSTELLATIONS [ .. ] PIANO KEYS

[17] MELDOMETER is to MELTING POINTS as ?=.........R is to AREA

[18] RUN | SECRET | ?=.....C

[19] One of the words hidden in the letters below is different from

the other 5. Which is it ?.

(1)OSOTRYPANSISMIA (2)LAM DE REM (3)EOMAR (4)GISMPELA (5)UPNAATAHI

[20] ?=....Y ?=.....R is to BOXING as JACK BRABON is to RACING

[21] RHEOSTAT is to FLOW OF ELLECTRIC CURRENT

as ?=.......R is to RAINFALL

[22] PERNICIOUS ANAEMIA is to VITAMIN B12 as VITAMIN ?=. is to BIOTIN

[23] Q S C / W D V / E F B / R G ?=

[24] HOMER is to THE ILIAD as ?=....A is to METAMORPHOSIS

[25] WRITE IN THE MISSING DIGIT

51310787891013151012[?=.]

[26] `KADDARA' is to HAKON BORRENSEN as `FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE'

is to NIKOLAI RIMSKY-?=........

[27] CUPID is to APHRODITE as HORUS is to ?=

[28] CENTRAL CORNEAL RADIUS is to ?=.C.E.N.R

as LORD JEFFREYS is to BLOODY ASSIZE

[29] ~SATURN AND ITS SYSTEM~ is to R.A.PROCTOR as

~THE PURCHASE OF THE POLE~ is to ?_ ?_

[30] Who said: ``The great thing about time is that it goes on. But

this is an aspect of it which the physicist sometimes

seems inclined to neglect'' ?=

[31] WIRELESS is to RADIO as THE ULNA is to THE ?=

[32] PERNICIOUS ANAEMIA is to VITAMIN B12 as VITAMIN ?=. is to CLOT

[33] STREET OF SHAME is to WALL STREET as HACK WRITERS

is to ?_ ?_

[34] EVIL is to AESIR as ODIN is to ?=

[35] ?=.......... is to MIND as ANAXIMINES is to AIR

[36] `JACKDAWS LOVE MY BIG SPHINX OF QUARTZ' is to `ALPHABET'

as ...AT.M.. ...T.C... is to ?=`.H. .N....LE ...R..S'

[37] ELISABETH is to ZACHARIAS as VALLY is to ?=......

[38] ADJECTIVE is to LAW as SUPERPOSITION is to ?=

(1)astronomy (2)astrology (3)biology (4)ecology (5)geology

(6)histology (7)philology

[39] ?=...... is to BRITISH HONDURAS as BOTSWANA is to BECHUANALAND

[40] SHANKS is to 707 as ?=....ENNE is to 2 to 86243 minus 1

[41] LAW OF LEAST SQUARES is to [?=.......]MY as

CAMERA OBSCURA is to PAINTER

[42] WHAT WORD MAY PRECEED AND FOLLOW THE TWO GROUPS ON EITHER SIDE OF IT ?

babylonian rest

bohemian [ ?= ] wait

long work

[43] `TRIPLE A' is to RATING CREDITWORTHINESS

as `TRIPLE NINE' is to ?=....

[44] HABOOB is to THE SUDAN as A SIGH IN THE SKY is to ?=

[45] WHICH WORD FROM THE GROUP BELOW IS THE MOST ACCURATE ?.

(a) fun (b) help (c) here (d) inch (e) late

(f) laughter (g) none (h) now (i) over (j) place

(k) sunk (l) there

[46] FILL IN THE MISSING LETTERS BELOW

.L.ED

.O.O.H.N

.O.R.G.N.UM

.I.S.S

.M.R.M.T.R

.N.A.L.O

.E.E.S

.E.I.F

.E.I.S

[47] THERE ARE MANY WARS AND TROUBLE SPOTS IN THE WORLD

- ALL HAVE BEEN STARTED BY PEOPLE WHO COMMANDED OTHERS TO

FULLFILL THEIR ?=....S

[48] WHICH IS THE ODD MAN OUT BELOW:

(1) a (2) c (3) e (4) o (5) s (6) v (7) w (8) z

[49] `A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME' is to STEPHEN HAWKING as

`ON THE LAW OF WAR AND PEACE' is to HUGO ?=......S

[50] THE FAILURE TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:

(a) as an issue is still very much an open one

(b) is only a relative issue

(d) occures on the lowest common denominator

(e) will of course one day be rectified

[51] EGG is to ?=............ as FISH is to CHRISTIANITY

[52] HIDDEN IN THE LETTERS ARE THE REAL WORDS BUT THE PAIRS ARE ALL

WRONG !. WRITE THE PAIRED NUMBERS:

1 & ?= // 2 & ?= // 4 & ?=

(1)aibnr & (5)oucst

(2)hcdlrtbiih & (3)gdrainl

(4)ptppoe & (6)dilch

[53] GASS is to GREEK as MILLION is to ?=.......

[54] DESULTORY is to VAGUE as ?=.......ORANEOUS is to HOUSE

[55] 3 7 7 9

4 4 2 2

0 0 0 ?=

0 0 0 0

[56] STARK EFFECT is to ELECTRIC FIELD as WAX is ?=....E ...S

[57] `ALCHEMIST' is to BEN JONSON as `A SHROPSHIRE LAD' is to

A.E. ?=....MAN

[58] LINK AUTHOR AND WORK BELOW:

AUTHORS:

(1)ALHAZEN (2)HANS EGEDE (3)LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

(4)ULISSES ANDROVANDI (5)WILLIAM CORBETT

(6)SIR GEORGE THOMSON

WORKS:

(7)OPTICAL THESAURUS (8)THE ATOM (9)LITTLE WOMAN

(10)THE VICE OF TEA-DRINKING

(11)JOURNAL OF THE MISSIONS TO GREENLAND

(12)HISTORY OF SERPENTS AND DRAGONS

[59] BOB / DIAN // DIGIT / ?=.... & HANDS

[60] SUM UP IN A SINGLE WORD THE CONCEPT OF `CULTURE' ?

=END OF TEST 5=

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Candidate TEST [6]

– by Christopher P. Harding (Australian Mega Society Member for 20+ years)

[ 1] When Bob Hope was asked about his choice of funeral arrangements

his joking reply was ?= ``S e me''.

[ 2] OSTEOMALACIA is to VITAMIN ?=. as WERNICKE-KORSAKOFF

is to VITAMIN B1

[ 3] WEM is to YAFHKZN as TLXV is to ?=

[ 4] Which of the following is ODD MAN OUT ?.

(1)ANTICLINE (2)OROGENY (3)PLICA (4)PLICATE (5)RUGA (6)UNFURL

[ 5] CICERONE is to GUIDE as ?....IEU is to FREQUENTLY VISITED PLACE

[ 6] CAESAR is to OCTAVIUS as ?=.....TER is to CHURCH

[ 7] 416256655364294967296

4?=.7?=..87?=..25152?=.52

[ 8] Complete the follow saying:

~When the wind shifts against the sun trust it not

?=... ?=.... ?=.. ?=.... ?=...

[ 9] WESTERNER is to 3 R'S as CHINESE SCHOLER is to THE ?=

(a)2 (b)3 (c)4 (d)5 ARTS.

[10] THESE 9 LORDS ARE CONNECTED TO THE SECOND LIST. WRITE THE NUMBER

ON THE SECOND LIST BEHIND THE NAMES ON THE FIRST LIST.

(1) Lord Shaftesbury

(2) Lord Ashby

(3) Lord Chamberlain

(4) Lord Montgomery

(5) Lord Snowdon

(6) Lord Subramanian

(7) Lord Todd

(8) Lord Haw-Haw

(9) Lord Protector

(1) Princes Margaret

(2) the great palmist Cheiro

(3) 6-headed Hindu god

(4) University degrees and diplomas should be like passports

renewable after five years

(5) Oliver Cromwell

(6) William Joyce

(7) Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1957

(8) 8th Army in North Africa during second world war

(9) 1876 Victoria Street Society against Vivisection

[11] FIRE is to ELMO as DENTIST is to ?=

[12] SUPINATE is to UPWARD as AKIMBO is to ?=..D..A.S

[13] What is the joking answer to the question:

`WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AEROPLANES AND TREES'

AEROPLANES ?=....E ....R ....S & TREES ?=...D ....R .....S

[14] EL-DAR-EL-BEIDA is to ?=.......... as LAKE IDI AMIN DADA

is to LAKE EDWARD

[15] `FOREST' `GRASS' & `GROUND' is to `BUSHFIRE'

as `HEAD' `FLANK' & `BACK' is to ?=....

[16] ENTASIS is to COLUMN as DECOLLETE is to ?=....S

[17] `THE GREAT GATSBY' is to F.SCOTT FITZGERALD as

`THE CHRISTMAS MONSTER' is to MOSES ?=.....

[18] DR. EVAN AND WILFRED SHUTE is to VITAMIN E as GEORGE WALD

is to VITAMIN ?=.

[19] SNOW is to ?=.IP.AB.EP.IA as COLOUR is to ACHROMATOPSY

[20] The following have one century in common. Which ?.

Assassin

Bede's bones

Division of England into shires

English hunting as a class-sensitive activity

In Spain the mystic Solomon Ibn Gabirol and the Kabbalah

Lady Godiva

Nudity as the rule in bed

(a)4th (b)7th (c)9th (d)10th (e)11th (f)12th (g)13th

(h)14th (i)16th (j)19th (k)20th

[21] WILLIAM OUGHTRED is to PIE as ?=...... ?=....

is to NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

[22] SHOEMAKING is to CRISPIN as TRAVELLERS AND FERRYMAN is to ?=

[23] TEA is to WHITE or DEAR as BEAN is to ?= ..ALL

[24] CORRIE-FISTED is to LEFT as ?=..... POKEY is to WIGGLE

[25] CHARACTER SPREAD/DECLINE is to RELATIVE BENIFIT/LIABILITY

as RATE CONSTANT is to ?=.......L .......N

[26] 1 JUNE is to WHEAT as 1 SEPTEMBER is to ?=........

[27] OMNIBUS is to BUS as ALL is to ?=...H

[28] AB INITIO is to BEGINNING as ?=.. .... is to AFRESH

[29] `MILL ON THE FLOSS' is to GEORGE ELIOT as `DER EWIGE JUDE'

is to ?=.....N ?.......G ?..N ?.....E

[30] SRI LANKA is to CEYLON is to RIVER ZAIRE is to ?=..... RIVER

[31] 8?=..13?=..164?=..009004441364

[32] NEPHOSCOPE is to CLOUDS as ?=........E is to BREATHING

[33] WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF FULL MOON'S IN ANY YEAR ?=

[34] `THE FATHER OF SET THEORY' is to CANTOR

as `THE AXIOM OF CHOICE' AND `THE CONTINUUM HYPOTHESIS'

is to ?=

[35] STORMS is to WODEN as WHAT WILL BE is to ?=

[36] QUININE is to CINCHONA as EUROPA is to KING OF ?=.....

[37] MATCH is to LUCIFER as ?= ..P...AN. is to LETTER

[38] DISTILLING is to ?= ...M.I. as ALTITUDE is to ASTROLABE

[39] SINGAPORE was once called the ?=L... CITY

[40] ZARF is to HOLDER as ?=.Y.E.M.MIA is to WAVING

[41] OMNISCIENT is to GOD as `THE KNOWLEDGE'

is to ?=.....N ...I .....R

[42] EXTRACTION INDUSTRY is to LAND SEA OR ?=... as INFRA is to BELOW

[43] FLAG is to POLE as DESIRE is to ?=..ILI..

[44] `DAS KAPITAL' is to MARX as `CHERRY ORCHARD' is to ANTON ?=.......

[45] V is to VATICAN CITY as ?=..S..A.. is to DEW OF THE SEA

[46] LENGTH to LACHESIS as CUT is to ?=

[47] `CAUTIONARY TALES' is to HILAIRE BELLOC as

~THE BAD CHILD'S BOOK OF BEASTS~ is to ?=_ ?=_

[48] WAR [5th to 10th century] is to .L.V.. AND LAND as JAZZ is to JASER

[49] HERSCHEL is to 48 as ROSE is to ?=..

[50] THE JUMBLE OF LETTERS BELOW WOULD MAKE SENSE IF UNSCRAMBLED.

WHAT ARE THE 4 WORDS ?.

(a) BUAIAL is to (b) VEDCISINEI as (c) IPHEYRULBA is to (d) ASHR

[51] In song he was said to hold the world in the palm of his hand ?=

[52] LEAST SQUARES is to 2 as STEFAN is to ?=

[53] WHICH 2 OF THE FOLLOWING ARE DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS ?.

(a)CHROMATELOPSIA (b)DALTONISM (c)CECITY (d)DOTAGE (e)PURBLIND

[54] KNIGHTS OF MALTA is to RHODES as BOOK OF ?=..OCH is to CANON

[55] WHICH IS ODD MAN OUT FROM THE LIST BELOW ?

(a)..ctrain (b)..melopard (c)..omedary (d).lama

[56] SYSTEM / GREEK is to TO STAND TOGETHER as

AXIOLOGY is to DETERMINATION OF [?=.....]S

[57] WHICH ONE HIDDEN IN THE LETTERS BELOW IS ODD MAN OUT

(a) TNAGI (b) MNEIPILH (c) ORPW (d) MRYI

[58] BARBERS STROP is to SKIN OF A ?=...... TAIL as `GRAS LIST' is to FDA

[59] RAINBOW is to IRIS as REALM OF DARKNESS OF THE DEAD is to ?=

[60] BOATS is to GO BY as NIGHT is ?_ ?_

=END OF TEST 6=

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

AMC Article Follow-up

by Ron Yannone

In Noesis issue #167, we presented a background article on the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) effort I am involved in.

I contacted the Director, Steve Dunbar, of the CAMC (Committee on the American Mathematics Competitions) regarding the Mega Society and the CAMC sending the URL for the Mega Society and Titan Test to past USAMO/IMO winners from around 1997 to present. Steve was extremely positive. I sent Dr. Hoeflin the 1997-2001 USAMO/IMO winner’s names and home towns from the book titled “USA and International Mathematical Olympiads 2001,” edited by Titu Andreescu [ISBN 0-88385-809-6], published by the MAA (Mathematical Association of America).

An excerpt from this book on the 2001 USAMO/IMO results follows – which you will find highly motivating.

The top twelve students on the 2001 USAMO were (in alphabetical order) as tabulated below.

#	Name	Home Town
1	Reid W. Barton	Arlington, MA
2	Gabriel D. Carroll	Oakland, CA
3	Luke Gustafson	Breckenridge, MN
4	Stephen Guo	Cupertino, CA
5	Daniel Kane	Madison, WI
6	Ian Le	Princeton Junction, NJ
7	Ricky I. Liu	Newton, MA
8	Tiankai Liu	Saratoga, CA
9	Po-Ru Loh	Madison, WI
10	Dong (David) Shin	West Orange, NJ
11	Oaz Nir	Saratoga, CA
12	Gregory Price	Falls Church, VA

Reid Barton was the winner of the Samuel Greitzer-Murray Klamkin award, given to the top scorer(s) on the USAMO. Reid Barton, Gabriel D. Carroll, Tiankai Liu placed first, second, and third, respectively, on the USAMO. They were awarded college scholarships of $15000, $10000, and $5000, respectively, by the Akamai Foundation. The Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) award, for a solution of outstanding elegance, carrying a $1000 cash prize, was presented to Michael Hamburg for his solution to USAMO Problem 6.

The USA team members were chosen according to their combined performance on the 30^th annual USAMO and the Team Selection Test that took place June 5-July 3, 2001 at the MOSP held at the Georgetown University. Members of the USA team at the 2001 IMO (Washington, D.C., United States of America) were Reid Barton, Gabriel D. Carroll, Ian Le, Tiankai Liu, Oaz Nir, and Davis Shin. Titu Andreescu (Director of the American Mathematics Competitions in 2001) and Zuming Feng (Phillips Exeter Academy) served as team leader and deputy leader, respectively. Zvezdelina Stankova (Mills College) also accompanied the team, as the observer of the team deputy leader.

At the 2001 IMO, gold medals were awarded to the students scoring between 30 and 42 points (there were 4 perfect papers on this very difficult exam), silver medals to students scoring between 19 and 29 points, and bronze medals to students scoring between 11 and 18 points. Barton and Carroll both scored perfect papers. The team’s individual performances were as follows.

Name	School	Medal
Barton	Homeschooled	GOLD Medallist
Carroll	Oakland Technical HS	GOLD Medallist
Le	West Windsor-Plainsboro HS	GOLD Medallist
Liu	Phillips Exeter Academy	GOLD Medallist
Nir	Monta Vista HS	SILVER Medallist
Shin	West Orange HS	SILVER Medallist

In terms of total score (out of a maximum of 252), the highest ranking of the 83 participating teams were as follows.

China	225	India	148
USA	196	Ukraine	143
Russia	196	Taiwan	141
Bulgaria	185	Vietnam	139
Korea	185	Turkey	136
Kazakhstan	168	Belarus	135

Reid Barton received the Samuel Greitzer-Murray Klamkin award in 2000 as well. Barton was a GOLD Medallist in the 2000, 1999, and 1999 IMO. He is presently at MIT.

Letters from the Editor

by Ron Yannone

I will continue to reach out to different publishers that might have interest in the Mega Society – particularly to canvass high-potential people to take the Titan Test for possible admission into the Mega Society. Other “contacts” are for other reasons. The list of contacts I have made and status follows.

#	“Contact”	Status
1.a	CAMC Director – Steve Dunbar (by phone)	Steve had his secretary mail past USAMO/IMO winners URL for Mega Society & Titan Test
1.b	CAMC Director – Steve Dunbar	Await email response
2	Scientific American Editor-in-Chief John Rennie	Await email response
3	Authors of “Islands of GENIUS” – Darold Treffert and Gregory Wallace – Scientific American Mind – Special Edition on the brain	Await email response
4	Editor – Popular Science – Scott Mowbray	Await email response
5	President Bush – via White House email	Await email response
6	Mac Anderson – Founder of Successories, Inc.	Await email response

Each contact made was accompanied by official Mega Society letterhead I conceived. In the case of President Bush’s letter, the Microsoft Word document did not “go through” the email route – so it was written in the email message “window” provided. A sample letter follows – in relation to the USAMO/IMO winners.

MEGA

SOCIETY

From the Editor’s Desk

March 21, 2004

Dear Advisory Panels – USAMO/IMO:

The Mega Society is a very high IQ society. I am a member of the AMC8, AMC10 and AMC12 development council for problem generation and reviewing galley material, since 1995.

I was wondering if the USAMO/IMO committees/advisory panels could forward the Mega Society’s admission test (the Titan test) to the top scorers of the USAMO/IMO in the past few years, and latest year who have also scored very high on the SAT verbal portion? We feel the top performers on the USAMO/IMO would be able to solve the non-verbal questions. The verbal portion would be equally important, because the cutoff for admission is 43/48 correct. The 43/48 Titan test score corresponds to 176 IQ, or at the one-in-a-million plateau (99.9999 percentile).

We feel this “caliber” student would have the greatest chance in being accepted into the Mega Society – and help correlate both SAT/USAMO-IMO performance statistics to exceptional IQ levels.

We plan to incorporate our findings and introduce new outstanding members in the Mega Society’s journal, Noesis. We “see” these exceptional youth as “future pillars” of the Mega Society.

Very sincerely yours,

Ron Yannone – Editor

Email: ronald.m.yannone@baesystems.com

Text Box: Mega Society Officers

Editor/Publisher
Ron Yannone

Administrator
Jeff Ward

Internet Officer
Kevin Langdon

Founder
Ronald K. Hoeflin

The Mega Society was founded in 1982 and has been documented in the GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS during the 1980’s as the most exclusive society. Mega means million and denotes the one-in-a-million status of its members. Presently, the only viable adult-level admissions test is the Titan Test, developed by its founder, Ron Hoeflin – where 43/48 correct answers corresponds to the minimum accepted IQ level of 176. See www.megasociety.net

Reply to Kevin Langdon – Relative to SAT Topic Noesis issue #167

by Brian Schwartz

Reply to Kevin Langdon – Relative to SAT Topic Noesis issue #167

by Brian Schwartz

In Noesis #167, Kevin Langdon says that only 6 people get a top score every year, and that's too small a sample. But you're always going to get a small sample at the 99.9998 level! The SAT has been taken by upwards of 50 million people. How much larger sample can you have?

And can one really say, as Kevin does, that since there are 200 SAT points between 2-sigma and 3-sigma, there must be another 200 points between 3- and 4-sigma? Kevin treats SAT scores like deviation IQ scores. He adds them, multiplies them by 1.11, and ends up with the bizarre result that an impossible SAT score of 1750 is below Prometheus level. You can do this sort of thing with deviation scores, but not with SAT scores. If the outdoor temperature reaches 70 degrees Fahrenheit once every 50 days (sigma 2), and 108 degrees Fahrenheit once every thousand days (sigma=3), Kevin would (using his exact same reasoning) say it would reach 146 degrees Fahrenheit once every 30,000 days! Eeek!

Test score extrapolation can be done – but it's a lot more complicated. Predictions made by calculating the standard deviation and simply adding it to get to the next sigma level are almost never accurate (except, of course for deviation IQ scores). Indeed, Ron Hoeflin cleverly used this fact when he normed the Mega Test; check out Table 6 of his 6^th norming, entitled "Table T6. Extrapolations to higher percentiles based on changes in the ratios of observed to expected participants scoring above five selected percentiles."

Later on Kevin argues that a 14 year old who is equal to a normal 17 year old has an IQ, not of 120 but of 111. I question this figure. I can’t find it in the pages cited. And there is a figure on page 104 of Jensen's Bias in Mental Testing, from which one could conclude that a 14-year-old with a mental age of a 17-year-old would be two standard deviations above the curve for chronological age versus mental age. Indeed, the Educational Testing Service estimates that an SAT score of a high school junior is equivalent to a score 65 points higher obtained by a senior. Extrapolating this -- and here extrapolation is valid, since the point difference per year probably increases the younger one goes – this would add 195 points to my score.

But let's assume Kevin's 111 figure is correct. The correct procedure is quite straightforward. Simply check a table to determine the rarity of a 111 IQ. If a 14-year-old who is equivalent to a normal 17-year-old has an IQ of 111, then that 14-year-old is in the 77% percentile. This figure is more than enough to boost my score way over the 99.9999 level. If a million 14-year-olds took the test, less than one will equal my
score.

What Kevin does with that 111 figure, however, is to multiply my SAT score by it (which is wrong) and then use the fact that he multiplied the SAT with a ratio to conclude that the result is a ratio IQ...even though he got it from a table wrongly calculated by
treating the SAT as a deviation IQ. This is doubly wrong. Voodoo psychometrics.

Reply to Chris Cole – Relative to SAT Topic Noesis issue #167

by Brian Schwartz

Chris Cole has, using mathematical simulations, made some rather strong arguments against the reliability of the SAT at the 99.9999 level. But these arguments are not limited to the SAT. They apply to all tests and especially to all multiple-choice tests. So if you accept Chris's proof that the SAT is not a good test for Mega, you will have to throw out the L.A.I.T. as well. (And possibly the Mega and Titan test too, since many of the math questions are in effect multiple choice.)

In fact, I believe that Chris' critique would apply even more to the L.A.I.T. than it does to the SAT for 2 reasons:

1. The SAT, unlike the L.A.I.T., has a 1/n penalty for incorrect answers, where n = the number of choices for each question.

2. The SAT has more questions than the L.A.I.T. Now of course the L.A.I.T. has a much higher mean, but that's not what is relevant. What matters is the number of questions that stand between a very high score -- say 3 sigma, or 99.9 -- and the Mega level. And there both tests are, I believe, equal. In fact, now that I think of it, the SAT has quite a few more questions standing between a 99.9er and the top -- at least 15 -- so the odds of a 3-sigma fellow guessing his way to a perfect score are infinitesimal (4^15).

So, suppose your fondest dreams are realized and every college in the US drops the SAT and requires the L.A.I.T. for admission. The next year, over a million high school seniors take the L.A.I.T. What are the chances that the most intelligent person gets the highest score? Wouldn't it be (as Chris calculated for the SAT) less than 1% ... and possibly a lot less?

Kevin apparently recognizes this. In Noesis #135, he wrote: "In my opinion, it's stretching things considerably to claim that these tests are accurate at their ceilings or a couple of points below them. The one-per-million level occurs at 176 on the LAIT and 46 on the Mega. Even if we allow one point for ceiling bumping, fewer than fifteen people have made scores this high on my tests or Ron's. I suggest that we lower our percentile cutoff to 99.9997, one in 300,000, or 4.5 sigma."

How “Selective Tests” Select

by Brian Schwartz

I think a lot of people have the intuitive feeling that a timed test with a lot of relatively easy questions cannot have a very high ceiling. (Of course, they are wrong to think the SAT questions are easy, but that's another matter.) But what makes an IQ test question good is not its high difficulty (which could well be due to s, specific math ability which may come as the result of study, such as that required for an advanced math diploma) but its correlation with that factor common to all problem-solving ... g.

Furthermore, researchers studying chronometrics have shown that reaction times are strongly correlated with g. (See the papers published in the mid-1980s by Philip Vernon, L. T. Miller, F. Nador and L. Kantor). And if this is granted, then it IS possible to have a lot of easy, but timed, questions measuring g, with a high ceiling, because what you would then be doing is measuring reaction time. Of course such a test does not directly measure speed of neuronal processing ... but, since millions of reaction times are involved in completing such a test, someone who cannot achieve the highest processing speed also cannot get a perfect score.

In fact, there is some evidence that even the most notoriously difficult IQ test questions might work in similar fashion. Fred Vaughan's study of the distribution of correct answers to Question 36 on the Mega Test found a striking similarity with the distribution of answers to a test composed of 6 easier questions on which a testee's score is zero unless he answers all 6 correctly. The exact same performance (ability to select at a very high level) as a tough problem can be achieved by grouping easier problems such that you must get all of a set correct. That is in essence what someone who gets an extreme score on a test like the SAT has done -- gotten all of them correct in every set.

PART 3 – The sentences with their JUMBLE placement

1. “Many of the yahcr children disappointed their parents by refusing outright to enter the gloomy caves the family had traveled so far to see.”

2. “They expressed themselves in such lcnsiueuomto language during the negotiation that we wondered if they were trying to sabotage us.”

3. “Try as I would, the conjurer’s eaaldd finger work with cards had me thoroughly confused in no time at all.”

4. “He always chose to go to pubs that attracted a generous assortment of hdysi girls.”

5. “Now, in our haste to speak and write of so-called genderless everythings, we are treated to ecpniee fashions, unisex barber shops, and his-and-her cigar clubs.”

6. “The Russian ballerina’s lithe body moved with a sxfuuloe grace rarely found in someone her age.”

7. “He took no notice of his wife’s depressed state until he realized she had abandoned the colorful prints she formerly enjoyed and was wearing nothing but cuussfo clothes.”

8. “His maundering conversation was surprisingly enjjeu for someone who held such an important position.”

9. “There was something huleco about the caretaker we had recently hired, and we regretted having entrusted our house keys to him.”

10. “After we enjoyed the emmlrraoa pleasures of the Greek galleries, we sampled the armoreal offerings of the medieval rooms.”

11. “Many of the men and women seen smoking behind the student center are not students at all, but stooie dropouts with nothing better to do.”

12. “When confronted by clear evidence of ccteapn behavior, the two scoundrels fell to their knees almost simultaneously, each pointing at the other and saying, ‘He told me to do it.’”

13. “By May I was gratified to find that many students had learned to prune their xrlpio sentences.”

14. “Ruth is a happy child, almost always nrtai in demeanor, loving to tell and hear jokes.”

15. “The lecturer’s ndscraio manner intimidated his students.”

16. “The aging actress was still perfectly eogsnie when she appeared in public even though she had not made a movie in years.”

17. “He thought he was impressing her with accounts of his accomplishments, but actually she was repelled by his ilhaotarncs rambling.”

18. “We all wondered at Gary’s strange taste in candidates for marriage partner, his rxluaoi litmus test apparently being whether or not a young woman could cook and keep house.”

19. “Much to the surprise of Samantha’s ardent admirers, her most important cvtai pronouncements, so characteristic of her, went unnoticed until long after her death.”

20. “The pubs in her neighborhood were closed down by an inspector who mistakenly believed the beer served there was afflicted with a iztomcy disease.”

“Adjective Jumble” Exercise (answers)

by Ron Yannone

1	chary (scanty, wary, discreetly cautious because of apparent risks)	11	otiose (indolent, lazy, idle)
2	contumelious (obstinate, rebellious)	12	peccant (to sin, go wrong)
3	daedal (skillful)	13	prolix (long, wide, extended)
4	dishy (an attractive woman)	14	riant (to laugh, cheerful, smiling)
5	epicene (common to many)	15	sardonic (sneering, cynical; mocking)
6	flexuous (winding, full of curves)	16	soignee (well groomed, sophisticated)
7	fuscous (dark, dusty)	17	thrasonical (vainglorious; bragging)
8	jejune (fasting, hungry; meager, feeble)	18	uxorial (of a wife; fond of his wife)
9	louche (one-eyed, shady, disreputable)	19	vatic (inspired, prophetic)
10	marmoreal (of marble, like marble)	20	zymotic (cause fermentation)

Member Questionnaire Checklist

by Mega Society Officers

The officers realize that the members of the Mega Society want to get to know each other better. As such, we started an itemized list (below) that we’d like you to add to, and send your responses into the Editor – Ron Yannone – by use of the enclosed pre-addressed, postage-paid envelope at your earliest convenience. There is no specific order to the itemized list below. When finalized, this questionnaire will be presented in a forthcoming issue of the Noesis journal. ONLY the members of the Mega Society will receive the completed questionnaires for the Society’s members.

∙ Member’s full name

∙ Text Box: Please add your items – on the separately enclosed “Member Questionnaire Checklist” – and mail it in to the Editor via the envelope provided!

This page, page 80, can remain in your Noesis issue for completeness. Date of information

∙ Date of birth

∙ Email address

∙ Nationality

∙ Date joined Mega Society

∙ Sex (male/female)

∙ Marital status

∙ Any children (yes/no)

∙ Name/age/sex of children

∙ College degree(s)

∙ Employment history

∙ Offices held in Mega Society

∙ Personal goals in life

∙ Intellectual achievements

∙ Records achieved in any area

∙ Sports prowess

∙ Clubs, associations outside Mega Society and offices held

∙ Topics in Noesis you would like to see articles on

∙ Topics in Noesis you would like to contribute

∙ Offices in Mega Society you would consider

∙ Musical instrument(s)

∙ Handedness (left/right)

∙ Awards won

∙ Ethnicity

∙ Position on the left/right political spectrum

∙ Religion or spiritual practice (if applicable)

∙ Personal website URL

∙ Publications

∙ Business/professional achievements

∙ Position in family you grew up in (e.g., 3^rd of 5 children)

∙ Products created/released

∙ Exhibits

∙ Lectures given

∙ Political offices sought/held

∙ Hobbies

∙ Favorite books, movies, music

Noesis

The Journal of the Mega Society

April 2004 Issue 168

Officers

CONTENTS

TITLE

PAGE

Happy Birthday to someone “Special”

Bill Corley

Bayesian Estimate of IQs

Comments on Chris Cole’s “Speculations on Physics VI” in Noesis #167

AMC Article – Reaching out to USAMO/IMO Winners via Titan Test

Letters from the Editor

Reply to Kevin Langdon – Relative to SAT Topic Noesis issue #167

Reply to Chris Cole – Relative to SAT Topic Noesis issue #167

How “Selective Tests” Select

PART 3 Adjective JUMBLE – The sentences with their JUMBLE placement

“Adjective Jumble” Exercise (answers)

Member Questionnaire Checklist

Founder of the Mega Society

Age: 60

Example Moves by Pieces – per Jerzy Luberda’s Game Instructions [1]

Pawn

Mega Society Member Bill Corley

P.O. Box 539

Chris

Candidate TEST [4]

Bayesian Estimate of IQs

One could also see in this the need to ~defrag~ the universe like one would do to ones computer files. Could we find evidence of this at work at the ‘sub sub-atomic level'?

PART 1 – Unravel these Adjective JUMBLES

K

INTERNATIONAL CONTEST OF LOGICAL SEQUENCES 2002 – 2003

MEGA

SOCIETY

Dear Advisory Panels – USAMO/IMO: