Jeopardy

[asterroc]

I'm home visiting my parents, and my mom's addicted to TV, including Jeopardy. Today's double Jeopardy categories included "Not a Prime Minister," "Before & After" (aka Smush), and "Math & Science."

C'mon, you've GOT to be kidding me! ONE SINGLE puny little category for ALL of Math and Science? That'd be like having a category on "Literature & History" with the others being "Particle Physics," "Not a Neurotransmitter," and "20th Century Set Theory"! Gimmie a break people.

Comments

[marquiswildbill.livejournal.com]

But not a neurotransmitter rules out all of what, 20 chemicals or so. Out of over 17 million known, so thats way to easy of a category.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

*pfeh* So come up with better ones! :)

ha!

[blue102.livejournal.com]

Great analogy. I love it. And many, MANY things are not neurotransmitters. Soup, for example. Not a neurotransmitter. Bourbon, K-Mart, the SR-71... all not classified as neurotransmitters.

(on a side note: I haven't done any particle physics work in a few years, but still can't type anything that starts with "neu" without automatically typing a 't' afterwards. NEUTRINOS!!! There. Ahh. I feel better. Neutrinos. :D)

[tacotortoise.livejournal.com]

Here's a few "Not a Neurotransmitter" answers, which I believe accurately reflect the format and style of "Not an X" categories:

- GABA, Gly, or Grue
- Vasopressin, Robitussin, or Corticotropin
- Substance P, Neurokynin B, or Preparation H

Well, okay, the style is a bit off on 1 and 3, but I couldn't resist.

Also, considering the quality of most of their math questions, I'm pretty much in favor of having more not-math categories. More seriously, I think things like the distribution of Jeopardy! categories and the absurd easiness of the GRE math section both reflect the same general problem: the things a "well-rounded" person is expected to know really don't include much math and science. One of my beefs with Jeopardy! is how they always make classical music categories out to be these scary things, especially opera -- I have seen categories literally labelled "The Dreaded Opera Category" and "Oh no! Opera!" -- but then the answers themselves involve very little actual musical knowledge, and are more a matter of picking up on cues and clues in the wording.

[arctangent.livejournal.com]

To be fair, "Before and After" is not really a category but an answer format, and could conceivably include questions on any concept that could exist, anywhere.

"Not a Prime Minister" could also conceivably include nearly all the concepts in existence minus those few that have to do with Prime Ministers. Really, "Math & Science" is by far the most restrictive category out of those three.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

You are right in theory that I picked poor examples. However, in practice, "Not a Prime Minister" listed three last names, all sounding somewhat similar, one of which/whom was not a prime minister. It is also rare to see Math and Science questions outside specific Math and Science categories.