Twenty Questions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the spoken game. For the toy, see 2. Q. For the computer- human game show, see 2. Q (game show). Opening titles on the 2.
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Twenty Questions is a spoken parlor game which encourages deductive reasoning and creativity. It originated in the United States and was played widely in the 19th. From the Listserv Archive. Browse through questions and answers, sorted by topic, Everyday Mathematics teachers have had about the curriculum through the years. ESL Games. Some of these can be used as warm-ups. Most of them can be linked to any lesson theme or grammatical form you're working on. These games usually require at. The Center for Educational Innovation enhances the University’s teaching and learning mission by promoting innovation and providing faculty, staff, and collegiate.
Questions television panel show (1. Twenty Questions is a spokenparlor game which encourages deductive reasoning and creativity. It originated in the United States and was played widely in the 1. It escalated in popularity during the late 1. In the traditional game, one player is chosen to be the answerer.
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That person chooses a subject (object) but does not reveal this to the others. All other players are questioners. They each take turns asking a question which can be answered with a simple "Yes" or "No." In variants of the game, multiple state answers may be included such as the answer "Maybe." The answerer answers each question in turn. Sample questions could be: "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" or "Can I put it in my mouth?" Lying is not allowed in the game. If a questioner guesses the correct answer, that questioner wins and becomes the answerer for the next round. If 2. 0 questions are asked without a correct guess, then the answerer has stumped the questioners and gets to be the answerer for another round. 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 with a simple "yes" or "no". If the answerer responds with "yes," the questioner can use the next question to narrow down the answer; if the answerer responds with "no," the questioner has successfully eliminated a number of possibilities for the answer. Popular variants[edit]The most popular variant is called "Animal, Vegetable, Mineral." This is taken from the Linnaean taxonomy of the natural world.
![University Games Twenty Questions University Games Twenty Questions](http://university-games.fashionstylist.com/cj/overstock/university-games/20-questions-game-1a.jpg)
In this version, the answerer tells the questioners at the start of the game whether the subject belongs to the animal, vegetable or mineral kingdom. 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 and mineral (because its leather comes from the hide of an animal unless it is synthetic, and its buckle is made of metal). Though if made of cloth or plant fibers, a belt can also be considered a vegetable.
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 Simon bar Kokhba.
A version of Twenty Questions called Yes and No is played as a parlour game by characters of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Similar to the aforementioned, there is another version known to English as a Second Language educators that is played based on a given topic (e.
There are many different ways to play this language game. Questions on "Educate, School, Learn" (Blogger), for example, was developed for the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education and Women's Affairs. Computers, scientific method and situation puzzles[edit]The abstract mathematical version of the game where some answers may be wrong is sometimes called Ulam's game or the Rényi–Ulam game. The game suggests that the information (as measured by Shannon's entropy statistic) required to identify an arbitrary object is at most 2. The game is often used as an example when teaching people about information theory. Mathematically, if each question is structured to eliminate half the objects, 2. 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.
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The process is analogous to a binary search algorithm in computer science or successive approximation ADC in analog- to- digital signal conversion. In 1. 90. 1 Charles Sanders Peirce 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).
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He discussed the potential of Twenty Questions to single one subject out from among 2. Thus twenty skillful 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 time. He elaborated on how, if that principle had been followed in the investigation of light, its investigators would have saved themselves from half a century of work.[2] Note that testing the smallest logical components of a hypothesis one at a time does not mean asking about, say, 1,0.
Instead it means extracting aspects of a guess or hypothesis, and asking, for example, "did an animal do this?" before asking "did a horse do this?". That aspect of scientific method resembles also a situation puzzle 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.
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A limit on their likeness to the scientific process of trying hypotheses is that a hypothesis, because of its scope, can be harder to test for truth (test for a "yes") than to test for falsity (test for a "no") or vice versa. In the 1. 94. 0s the game became a popular radio panel quiz show, Twenty Questions, first broadcast at 8pm, Saturday, February 2, 1. Mutual Broadcasting System from New York's Longacre Theatre on West 4. Street. Radio listeners sent in subjects for the panelists to guess in 2. Winston Churchill's cigar was the subject most frequently submitted. On the early shows, listeners who stumped the panel won a lifetime subscription to Pageant.
From 1. 94. 6 to 1. Ronson Lighters. In 1. Wildroot Cream- Oil was the sponsor. The show was the creation of Fred Van Deventer, who was born December 5, 1. Tipton, Indiana, and died December 2, 1.
Van Deventer was a WOR Radio newscaster with New York's highest- rated news show, Van Deventer and the News. Van Deventer was on the program's panel with his wife, Florence Van Deventer, who used her maiden name, appearing on the show as Florence Rinard. Their 1. 4- year- old son, Robert Van Deventer (known on the show as Bobby Mc. Guire) and the program's producer, Herb Polesie, completed the regular panel with daughter Nancy Van Deventer joining the group on occasions. Celebrity guests sometimes contribute to identifying the subject at hand.
The Van Deventer family had played the game for years at their home, long before they brought the game to radio, and they were so expert at it that they could often nail the answer after only six or seven questions. On one memorable show, Maguire succeeded in giving the correct answer (Brooklyn) without asking a single question.
The studio audience was shown the answer in advance and Maguire based his answer on the audience's reaction; during the 1. New York radio studio audiences included many Brooklynites, and they cheered wildly whenever Brooklyn was mentioned in any context. The moderator was sportscaster Bill Slater who opened each session by giving the clue as animal, vegetable, or mineral. He then answered each query from panel members. This cast remained largely intact throughout the decade- long run of the show. Slater was succeeded at the beginning of 1. Jay Jackson, who remained through the final broadcast, and there were two changes in the panel's juvenile chair.
When Mc. Guire graduated from high school, his decision to attend the North Carolina- based Duke University meant he could no longer remain on the program, so he asked his high school friend Johnny Mc. Phee to replace him.[3] Since Mc. Phee was attending nearby Princeton University, he was thus geographically available for the production in New York. Mc. Phee continued until he graduated and was himself succeeded by Dick Harrison (real name John Beebe) in September 1.
Harrison continued until early 1. Bobby Mc. Guire, then 2.
Mc. Guire appeared as the "oldest living teenager" until the end of the run. Television[edit]2. Questions. Created by. Fred van de Venter (1. Ron Greenberg by arrangement with Dick Rubin Ltd (1. Pilot)Directed by. Roger Bower (1. 94.
Dick Sandwick (1. Harry Coyle (1. 94. Bill Mc. Carthy(1. Arthur Forrest (1. Pilot)Presented by.
Bill Slater (1. 94. Jay Jackson (1. 95. Jack Clark (1. 97. Pilot)Dick Wilson (1. Pilot)Narrated by. Frank Waldecker (1.
John Gregson (1. 94. Bob Shepard (1. 94. Wayne Gossman (1.
Pilot)Burton Richardson (1. Pilot)Composer(s)Score Productions (1. Pilot)Country of origin. United States. No. Production. Executive producer(s)Fred van de Venter (1.
Ron Greenberg (1. Pilot)Producer(s)Norman Livingston (1. Jack Wyatt (1. 94. Duane Mc. Kinney (1. George Elber (1. 94.
Gary Stevens (1. 94. Location(s)New Amsterdam Theatre, New York (1.
ABC Television Center, New York (1. Pilot)KTLA Studios, Hollywood (1. Pilot)Running time. Production company(s)Fred van de Venter Productions (1. Mutual Broadcasting System (1. Ron Greenberg Productions (1. Pilot)MCA- TV Ltd (1.
Pilot)Distributor. Buena Vista Television (1. Pilot)Release. Original network. WOR (1. 94. 9)NBC (1. ABC (1. 95. 0–1.
Du. Mont (1. 95. 1–1. Picture format. Black- and- white (1. Color (1. 97. 5 Pilot, 1. Pilot)Audio format. Monaural. Original release.
November 2, 1. 94. May 3, 1. 95. 5 (1. Chronology. Related shows.
Q (2. 00. 9). Photo from Du. Mont advertising the show, with 1. Dick Harrison, Herb Polesie, Fred Van Deventer, Florence Rinard, and actor Aldo Ray as guest panelist (February 1, 1. As a television series, Twenty Questions debuted as a local show in New York on WOR- TV Channel 9 on November 2, 1. Beginning on November 2. NBC until December 2.
March 1. 7, 1. 95. ABC until June 2. Its longest and most well- known run, however, is the one on the Du. Mont Television Network from July 6, 1.