Side-question: , was there a lesson or point to the less-direct phrasing of “if you are on Vulcan, you’re in the mountain”? It’s exactly equivalent but harder to read (for me) than “you are not in the Vulcan desert”. Was this part of your intent to induce 1⁄2 as the instinctive answer, or just an accident of storytell
It was intended to push you towards the 1⁄2 answer. If I wrote: you are not in the Vulcan desert” many people would immediately reason that I’ve eliminated 1⁄4 possibilities leaving 3 left for a 1⁄3 chance. With the current formulation, many people won’t even realise that they are equivalent.
Side-question: , was there a lesson or point to the less-direct phrasing of “if you are on Vulcan, you’re in the mountain”? It’s exactly equivalent but harder to read (for me) than “you are not in the Vulcan desert”. Was this part of your intent to induce 1⁄2 as the instinctive answer, or just an accident of storytell
It was intended to push you towards the 1⁄2 answer. If I wrote: you are not in the Vulcan desert” many people would immediately reason that I’ve eliminated 1⁄4 possibilities leaving 3 left for a 1⁄3 chance. With the current formulation, many people won’t even realise that they are equivalent.