Decisions resulting in an unknown possiblity

Fictional character John was walking around the neighbourhood until he chanced upon a button fixed on to a wall in a mysterious walkway. It was a big, red button marked with the warning: DO NOT PRESS.

What would you do?

If John was the curious or adventurous type, he would press the button without hesitation. But if he was the paranoid and cautious type, he would think twice before acting. These were the thoughts going through his mind.

"What's this? A big, red button on a wall. What could happen if I press it? An explosion? That's not really possible, but I'm still not sure about taking such an uncertain risk. Could it reveal a secret passage? Nah! But what else could this mean? Who is so ridiculously free to place a button so luminous and obvious? Wait, if it is so obvious, then I doubt I'm the first person to find this weird button. So what happened to the rest who did before me?" *Checks the floor for any trapdoors* "Okay, that was stupid...Maybe I should just ignore this tempting button and get on with my life. This could be a decision of life and death! If I press this button, I might save some lives...or die in an explosion or whatever. Or maybe this button has no purpose at all, designed to trick people to make a fool of themselves or for people like me to think so deeply. Or...this is part of a 'Just For Laughs' gag! If I press this button, something ridiculous will happen to me and exhibited as a slapstick gag in the show. Now that's quite possible. Lets see what happens when I press this button...from a distance." *Picks up a rock and throws at the button* A bucket of water drops on the floor, face down. "I better get outta here."

This little story shows an example of a decision that would result in an unknown possibility. However, does the mysteriousness of that situation affects how John might think? What if the button states: PRESS AND DIE. Would it deter people from pressing the button or instead, tempt more people to fall for it?

Seems fair enough

Sometimes, the more you don't want something to happen, the more probable it will happen. This applies the other way round too. This is how reverse psychology works. If I tell you to press this button, you will become paranoid and refuse to press it. If I tell you not to press this button, you will wonder why and press it.

In the case of this button, it has a vague warning of death. It does not state anything else and thus creates a questionable decision. It has a similar meaning to "Do not press" as both buttons have messages that try to prevent people from pressing them.

Tempting...

This is similar to offers that are "Too good to be true" in real life. We see advertisements everywhere, promoting schemes that offer fast cash, promoting products with huge discounts, promoting lucky draws with amazing prizes. Advertisements such as these are usually slanted towards our weakness. If you are greedy, you will fall for them.

Moral of the story: Ignore all big red buttons you see. Nothing not good will happen if you don't press the button.

Division by zero

Division by zero is when zero is the divisor of a numeric value. In such a case, result would usually be referred to infinity. However, if you work it out with a calculator, you would most likely get a "math error". Even if the equation seems perfectly logical. Here are a few examples.

x/0*0 should result with zero as the answer. And so should (x/0)-(x/0).

However, the most outrageously incorrect answer I feel would be towards the equation 0/0.

Here is my proof that 0/0 should result in a 1.

Proof

x/1=x

switch the divisor and the answer to get

x/x=1

Every number can satisfy these equations. If you replace x with 0, you can will be able to see that 0/1=0 is obviously correct and so should be 0/0=1.

About me

Oops, looks like I forgot to introduce myself in my first post :p.

My name is Kuan Wei Heng. My index is 13, and I'm from 2A1. My MSG was 2.33 last year, not too bad and my CCA is Robotics! In comparison with other people, I'm stronger at Mathematics and weak in Chinese. My thinking is also very logical and that's why I can learn different programming languages easily. Here are some other random facts about myself:

• I am a Windows user (Hurray :D)
• I own a Netbook (Yippee :D)
• I am a platforming champion (Nobody I know is better than me at that :D)
• I type very slow (Small keyboard :p)
• I am a Firefox 3.6 beta tester! (IE fail)
• I can run (Inside joke)
• I debate with myself (check the alt texts)
• I have a very good memory (I can remember pi to 20 digits)

That was quite random.

CCA Orientation

Today was CCA Orientation. What seemed like a very easy-to-control sec 1 batch turned out to be chaos. They played with the Legos. They rampaged the FLL playfield and messed with the truck. They destroyed a robot. They were horribly uncontrollable.

The first group was still okay. The second group was still tolerable. But soon, "Hwa Chong Oi!" had to be shouted to get their attention. The third group left and I found out that there were still a lot more groups to go. During all the visits, the presentations were all the same, as the time go by, the presentations got shorter and shorter while we got more and more bored.

Good thing that's over...

First Post! (Now that's a dumb title)

I've dumped rubberbazooka away and started this new blog. For those who don't know, this is a school blog. Its a school blog but its still my blog, so expect averagely boring content and completely mundane and unoriginal posts with no sarcasm or inside jokes or whatever.

This blog's URL is http://goowikihoo.blogspot.com/. And this is its logo:
Anyone should have picked up the references by now :p

Have fun looking through my blog!

(Now that's a dumb closure)