221:, to show how the questions we choose to ask about the universe may dictate the answers we get. In this variant, the respondent does not choose or decide upon any particular or definite object beforehand, but only on a pattern of "yes" or "no" answers. This variant requires the respondent to provide a consistent set of answers to successive questions, so that each answer can be viewed as logically compatible with all the previous answers. In this way, successive questions narrow the options until the questioner settles upon a definite object. Wheeler's theory was that, in an analogous manner, consciousness may play some role in bringing the universe into existence.
1103:
67:", "Is it alive?", and finally "Is it this pen?" Lying is not allowed. If a questioner guesses the correct answer, they win and become the answerer for the next round. If 20 questions are asked without a correct guess, then the answerer has stumped the questioners and gets to be the answerer for another round.
70:
Careful selection of questions can greatly improve the odds of the questioner winning the game. For example, a question such as "Does it involve technology for communications, entertainment or work?" can allow the questioner to cover a broad range of areas using a single question that can be answered
517:
when, after having drunk a triple gin-and-tonic he had originally offered to
Messiter, proceeded to completely ruin the night's game – he insulted two panelists, failed to recognise a correct identification after seven questions (after revealing the answer upon the 20th question, he yelled at
197:
in facing (unlike twenty questions) a puzzling scenario at the start. Both games involve asking yes/no questions, but Twenty
Questions places a greater premium on efficiency of questioning. A limit on their likeness to the scientific process of trying hypotheses is that a hypothesis, because of its
87:. These categories can produce odd technicalities, such as a wooden table being classified as a vegetable (since wood comes from trees), or a belt being both animal (if leather) or vegetable (if cloth), and mineral (if it has a metal or plastic buckle). Another variant is "person, place, or thing".
165:
discussed factors in the economy of research that govern the selection of a hypothesis for trial: (1) cheapness, (2) intrinsic value (instinctive naturalness and reasoned likelihood), and (3) relation (caution, breadth, and incomplexity) to other projects (other hypotheses and inquiries). He
414:, written by Dick O'Donovan and produced by Bill O'Donovan (occasional panelist) and included Dominic OâRiordan, Tony Ă DĂĄlaigh, SeĂĄn Ă MurchĂș and MĂĄire Noone on the panel. It proved enormously popular, travelling the length and breadth of Ireland, hosted in local clubs and community halls.
338:, the leader of the second-century Jewish uprising against the Romans. The story goes that the Romans cut out a spy's tongue, so when he reached bar Kokhba's camp, he was only able to nod or shake his head to answer bar Kokhba's questions. The number of questions is not limited to twenty.
62:
In the traditional game, the "answerer" chooses something that the other players, the "questioners", must guess. They take turns asking a question which the answerer must answer with "yes" or "no". In variants of the game, answers such as "maybe" are allowed. Sample questions could be:
175:
He elaborated on how, if that principle had been followed in the investigation of light, its investigators would have saved themselves half a century of work. Testing the smallest logical components of a hypothesis one at a time does not mean asking about, say,
602:(1950) then members of the team, including Richard Dimbleby and Norman Hackforth, appear. Together with two newspaper reporters, they work to find the identity of a serial killer who sends in questions for the panel that prefigure his next victim.
170:
Thus twenty skilful hypotheses will ascertain what two hundred thousand stupid ones might fail to do. The secret of the business lies in the caution which breaks a hypothesis up into its smallest logical components, and only risks one of them at a
477:
aired a version on radio from 28 February 1947 to 1976 with TV specials airing in 1947 and 1948 plus a series from 1956 to 1957. On radio, the subject to be guessed was revealed to the audience by a "mystery voice" (originally
146:
objects. Accordingly, the most effective strategy for twenty questions is to ask questions that will split the field of remaining possibilities roughly in half each time. The process is analogous to a
59:. It originated in the United States and was played widely in the 19th century. It escalated in popularity during the late 1940s, when it became the format for a successful weekly radio quiz program.
299:
was replaced by Jay
Jackson. After this run ended, ABC picked up the series once again from July 6, 1954, to May 3, 1955. The last radio show had been broadcast on March 27, 1954.
425:
aired its own version continuously from 1947 to the early 1980s. In 2004, the radio series was revived and regained its popularity, leading to a 2006 TV version. The
Norwegian
90:
Other versions specify that the item to be guessed should be in a given category, such as actions, occupations, famous people, etc. In
Hungary a similar game is named after
685:
Peirce, C. S. (1901 MS), "On The Logic of
Drawing History from Ancient Documents, Especially from Testimonies", manuscript corresponding to an abstract delivered at the
642:
482:
from 1947 to 1962; he was later a regular panelist). Hackforth became well known amongst the
British public as much for his aloofness as his apparent knowledgeability.
1125:
83:
of the natural world. In this version, the answerer tells the questioners at the start of the game whether the subject belongs to the animal, vegetable or mineral
453:
in 1960s, hosts were
Ryszard Serafinowicz and Joanna Rostocka. In Polish version there were three 3-player teams: mathematicians, journalists and mixed team from
186:
subjects one at a time, but extracting aspects of a guess or hypothesis, and asking, for example, "Did an animal do this?" before asking "Did a horse do this?".
647:
518:
the panel and audience), and ended the show three minutes early by saying "I'm fed up with this idiotic game ... I'm going home". He was replaced by
136:. Mathematically, if each question is structured to eliminate half the objects, 20 questions allow the questioner to distinguish between 2 =
744:
346:
was played by
Frigyes Karinthy and his company in Budapest back in 1911. So the game started in Hungary from the New York café in Budapest.
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252:'s cigar was the subject most frequently submitted. On the early shows, listeners who stumped the panel won a lifetime subscription to
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network beginning in
September, 1961; its host, Stewart Macpherson, went on to become the original host of the UK version.
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discussed the potential of twenty questions to single one subject out from among 2 and, pointing to skilful caution, said:
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on West 48th Street. Radio listeners sent in subjects for the panelists to guess in twenty questions;
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435:. A 2006 board game based on the series is currently the prize sent to listeners who beat the panel.
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until December 24, after which it remained dormant until March 17, 1950, when it was picked up by
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The abstract mathematical version of the game where some answers may be wrong is sometimes called
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564:(who later hosted in 1974). The "mystery voice" later became a running gag on the radio series
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Channel 9 on November 2, 1949. Beginning on November 26, the series went nationwide on
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with a simple "yes" or "no", significantly narrowing down the possibilities.
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A variant is called "animal, vegetable, or mineral". This is taken from the
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scope, can be harder to test for truth (test for a "yes") than to test for
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v. 7, paragraphs 162â231; see 220. Reprinted (first half) in 1998 in
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continues on NRK radio and TV, and a web-based game is available at
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from July 6, 1951, to May 30, 1954. During this time, original host
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541:, is not acknowledged by the BBC. Another revival, under the title
240:, first broadcast at 8 pm, Saturday, February 2, 1946, on the
406:
A bi-lingual (Irish/English) version of Twenty Questions aired on
132:. The game is often used as an example when teaching people about
128:
statistic) required to identify an arbitrary object is at most 20
1015:
537:. A version with a rival line-up, produced by commercial station
316:
in Winnipeg, Canada from March to June, 1961 and then on the new
313:
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262:
234:
In the 1940s, the game became a popular radio panel quiz show,
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758:
Gribbin, John; Gribbin, Mary; Gribbin, Jonathan (2000-02-22).
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List of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network
450:
291:
Its longest and best-known run, however, is the one on the
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281:
129:
120:. The game suggests that the information (as measured by
31:
711:
Wheeler, John Archibald; Zurek, Wojciech Hubert (1983).
30:
This article is about the spoken game. For the toy, see
552:
A televised version ran from 1960 to 1961, produced by
648:
List of surviving DuMont Television Network broadcasts
370:
from 1975 to 1991. It was the first show presented by
761:
Q is for Quantum: An Encyclopedia of Particle Physics
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432:
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258:. From 1946 to 1951, the program was sponsored by
108:Computers, scientific method and situation puzzles
410:Radio 1 in the 1960s and 1970s. It was hosted by
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1126:Games and sports introduced in the 19th century
689:meeting of November 1901. Published in 1958 in
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788:On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio
673:Twenty Questions: A Short Treatise on the Game
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791:. Oxford University Press. pp. 685â686.
529:A revival ran for one season in the 1990s on
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444:
217:used a variant on twenty questions, called
27:Spoken guessing game using yesâno questions
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743:: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
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158:in analog-to-digital signal conversion.
34:. For the computer-human game show, see
833:
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485:The series was originally presented by
366:) on the Hungarian national television
276:debuted as a local show in New York on
14:
1118:
715:. Princeton, New Jersey. p. 202.
980:Button, button, who's got the button?
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461:to answer the questions, using to it
354:was staged as a television game show
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211:interpretation of quantum mechanics
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24:
463:Wielka Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN
25:
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513:, was ousted in 1960 by producer
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328:In Hungary, the game is known as
207:participatory anthropic principle
202:(test for a "no") or vice versa.
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631:, an Indian television quiz show
577:also broadcast a version called
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620:, an online version which uses
599:The 20 Questions Murder Mystery
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713:Quantum theory and measurement
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701:v. 2, pp. 75â114; see 107â110.
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389:Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
13:
1:
870:UK Game Shows: "20 Questions"
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579:Animal, Vegetable and Mineral
549:for a single series in 1998.
65:Is it bigger than a breadbox?
844:"Obituary: Norman Hackforth"
687:National Academy of Sciences
156:successive-approximation ADC
7:
670:Walsorth, Mansfield Tracy.
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10:
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1051:Pin the tail on the donkey
567:I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
505:, in later years comedian
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242:Mutual Broadcasting System
29:
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1091:What's the time, Mr Wolf?
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886:Austerity Britain 1945â51
509:also. A later presenter,
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293:DuMont Television Network
219:surprise twenty questions
1161:1970s British game shows
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1146:1940s British game shows
522:until 1967, followed by
433:the official NRK website
272:As a television series,
213:, theoretical physicist
1071:Seven minutes in heaven
622:artificial intelligence
614:artificial intelligence
585:with a panel including
459:binary search algorithm
395:Legyen Ăn is milliomos!
148:binary search algorithm
785:Dunning, John (1998).
764:. Simon and Schuster.
554:Associated-Rediffusion
489:. The panel comprised
445:
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412:GearĂłid Ă Tighearnaigh
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215:John Archibald Wheeler
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163:Charles Sanders Peirce
288:until June 29, 1951.
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822:. Nrk.no. 2009-06-20
698:The Essential Peirce
587:Rachael Heyhoe Flint
383:Mindent vagy semmit!
526:from 1970 to 1972.
209:(PAP), which is an
53:deductive reasoning
1006:Bobbing for apples
487:Stewart MacPherson
267:Wildroot Cream-Oil
205:In developing the
134:information theory
1113:
1112:
1021:Duck, duck, goose
899:978-0-7475-9923-4
722:978-1-4008-5455-4
575:BBC World Service
312:aired locally on
269:was the sponsor.
250:Winston Churchill
225:Radio and TV quiz
193:resembles also a
191:scientific method
101:A Christmas Carol
81:Linnaean taxonomy
51:which encourages
16:(Redirected from
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964:Party games
583:Terry Wogan
562:Peter Jones
543:Guess What?
531:BBC Radio 4
507:Peter Glaze
503:Joy Adamson
428:20 spÞrsmÄl
372:IstvĂĄn VĂĄgĂł
297:Bill Slater
114:Ulam's game
49:parlor game
1120:Categories
1076:Simon Says
1026:Hot potato
923:2013-07-23
890:Bloomsbury
856:2009-08-26
826:2009-07-25
659:References
639:board game
636:Guess Who?
628:Aswamedham
547:Barry Took
499:Anona Winn
495:Jack Train
57:creativity
739:cite book
731:888216845
377:Jeopardy!
351:Barkochba
343:Barkochba
331:Barkochba
1107:Category
985:Charades
884:(2008).
618:Akinator
606:See also
446:20 pytaĆ
263:lighters
161:In 1901
1016:Dreidel
402:Ireland
324:Hungary
314:CJAY-TV
255:Pageant
200:falsity
126:entropy
122:Shannon
116:or the
85:kingdom
1056:Piñata
896:
804:30 May
795:
768:
729:
719:
439:Poland
418:Norway
386:) and
303:Canada
278:WOR-TV
260:Ronson
46:spoken
820:"NRK"
171:time.
44:is a
894:ISBN
806:2020
793:ISBN
766:ISBN
745:link
727:OCLC
717:ISBN
589:and
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556:for
501:and
473:The
455:ĆĂłdĆș
451:TVP1
130:bits
55:and
612:20Q
558:ITV
475:BBC
423:NRK
408:RTE
398:).
318:CTV
286:ABC
282:NBC
183:576
180:048
154:or
150:in
143:576
140:048
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392:(
380:(
178:1
138:1
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20:)
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