I found that some of life's greatest revelations can discovered on the open road with nothing more than an evening breeze, jazz on the radio, and a 5lb bag of gummi bears. I've also learned that I'll always have more questions than answers (and that's okay!). May this be a written and visual documentation of this crazy journey we call life.

9.16.2008

Bored?

Okay, try this game. It's an interactive graphic from today's NYT Science article on math.

"Testing Your Approximate Number Sense:
Humans use two distinct number systems, one learned and one intuitive. Computation, such as taking a square root, is an abstract process that is uniquely human. But the nonverbal process of approximating numbers is a system we share with infants and many other animals."

Most adults who take this test get an average of 75% after taking it 25 times. I only got one wrong, when I had to differentiate between 14 blue dots and 15 yellow ones. I'm curious to see if artists test higher because of their visual spatial skills.

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3 Comments:

Blogger Michelle said...

I don't think art has anything to do with this - or at least I hope not, because then I'm never going to be an artist in any way.

I did miserably! I got 40% exactly. How pitiful. Although in my defense, I think it might have to do with my vision to begin with. My eyes are so bad, that I see rings around anything brightly colored or shine, ie. the yellow dots on a dark background. I noticed that the majority of my incorrect answers occurred when the yellow dots were larger, thus creating larger rings of yellow, making me think there was more yellow.
Or maybe I really am just pitiful.

6:28 AM

 
Blogger jacqueline said...

How strange... I did this 23 times and didn't miss once. Weird. I am going to do it until I mess up since I don't think I can make a living off my newfound bizarre skill...

8:04 PM

 
Blogger jacqueline said...

78 and counting. giving up.

8:06 PM

 

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