While many of us like to think of ourselves as pretty smart, it can often be a difficult point to prove.
One way to challenge your brain is by taking on an intelligence quotient test - better known as an IQ test. However, many versions of these tests can take hours to complete, with as many as 50 questions to asses your cognitive abilities.
But if you are keen to put your brain to the test in a speedier way, there is a must quicker test you can take. The Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) is said to be the world's shortest IQ test, with those taking part only required to answer three questions.
Despite being short in length, the test is pretty tricky, with only 17 percent of people able to answer the questions correctly, reports The Mirror.
In order to reach the right conclusion, the questions required you to change you way of thinking. So, even though the quiz may look simple to start with, it is a little more difficult that is seems.
Originally created as part of a 2005 research paper by Professor Shane Frederick of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the IQ has has recently resurfaced online, with many people keen to try their luck.
Over 3,000 have taken on the test, with many from different educational backgrounds answering the three questions.
However, even those from high flying American universities, including Yale and Harvard, have struggled to find the correct answers.
Professor Frederick said: "The three items on the CRT are 'easy' in the sense that their solution is easily understood when explained, yet reaching the correct answer often requires the suppression of an erroneous answer that springs 'impulsively' to mind."
So, if you fancy giving the test a go to figure out if you are in fact a genius, here are the questions and answers.
Cognitive Reflection Test questions:
A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
If it takes five machines five minutes to make five widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?
In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?
Cognitive Reflection Test answers:
The most common answers give are actually incorrect, with many people guessing:
- 10 cents
- 100 minutes
- 24 days
Professor Frederick said: "Anyone who reflects upon it for even a moment would recognise that the difference between $1 and 10 cents is only 90 cents, not $1 as the problem stipulates.
"In this case, catching that error is tantamount to solving the problem, since nearly everyone who does not respond '10 cents' does, in fact, give the correct response."
The correct answers are:
- Five cents
- Five minutes
- 47 days
If you can't quick get your head around the answers, do not worry, you are not alone.
Presh Talwalkar, author of The Hoy of Game Theory: An Introduction to Strategic Thinking, explained how to work out each answer in his blog Mind Your Decisions.
- Say the ball costs X. Then the bat costs $1 more, so it is X + 1. So we have bat + ball = X + (X + 1) = 1.1 because together they cost $1.10. This means 2X + 1 = 1.1, then 2X = 0.1, so X = 0.05. This means the ball costs five cents and the bat costs $1.05
- If it takes five machines five minutes to make five widgets, then it takes one machine five minutes to make one widget (each machine is making a widget in five minutes). If we have 100 machines working together, then each can make a widget in five minutes. So there will be 100 widgets in five minutes.
- Every day FORWARD the patch doubles in size. So every day BACKWARDS means the patch halves in size. So on day 47 the lake is half full.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond. Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
