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Calligraphy exam: Write down the number 37, spelled out, nicely.

explananation: https://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2966:_Exam_Numbers

0 points

1 x ∞

Simplest way to take a shot at the biggest number without getting into some weird multiple multipliers of infinity.

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27 points

Man, I remember getting the kindergarten question at a point where my older brother had already told me that you can just add more digits and it always gets bigger.

I was so angry at that question, because what the hell do you want me to do here? I think, I ended up just cramming as many 9s into the box as I could, but that question is almost philosophical.

Clearly, I’m able to think of an even larger number by cramming one more 9 into there. So, what I’ve written down is always wrong. It is never the largest number that I’m actually able to think of. I’m telling you, I got forced into this life of lies and crime at a young age.

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2 points

the real answer is n+1

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19 points

The game theory one is easy. Put down 999,999,999,999 factorial. Then everyone got it wrong, and the curve will reflect that.

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2 points

Joke is on you, I wrote Tree(Tree(3))

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1 point

My strategy is still working, though, and you’ve now (all but) guaranteed that my answer is the closest to the correct answer.

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3 points

That’s why it’s always between 1 and 100. Never seen one without an upper and lower bound.

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4 points

Write NaN to destroy your classmates

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1 point

sqrt(-1)

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12 points

Basically, write down the biggest number you can think of

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1 point

Only if it’s “10 more” in the sense that anything bigger than that is also accepted. If you need to hit 57, because the average is 47, then yeah, good luck.

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5 points

The goal in the upstream comment wasn’t to get the answer right for you, it’s to skew the average so badly that nobody gets it right, and the bell curve adjusts accordingly for everyone.

Not a bad strategy to be honest

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7 points

2 is pretty big. Oh, or π! That’s probably the biggest number I’ve seen this month.

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5 points

0

is bigger than

1

but my

2

is bigger than yours

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3 points

draw a picture of the galaxy with a giant 1 going through it. that’s pretty reasonable.

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50 points
*

My dad is a retired Math professor.

The laughter had around this started at Cosmology, then erupted at Game theory and he couldn’t breathe after the last one.

This is probably one of his most clever comics.

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