Forums → The Tavern → Math Question (solved)

Q1: Pill A cured 75%, Pill B cured 83.3%.

Q2: Pill A cured 40%, Pill B cured 50%.

Q3: Pill B is more effective. It had higher percentages both times.

Q1: Pill A cured 75%, Pill B cured 83.3%.

Q2: Pill A cured 40%, Pill B cured 50%.

Q3: Pill B is more effective. It had higher percentages both times.

Noname, if the teacher didn't explain why they marked it wrong, perhaps you can tell me why you deleted my post. For no reason of explanation.

Statistically, Pill B is better, as Armpit pointed out.

Overall, Pill A cured a total of more people, with 85 cures against Pill B's 60.

It depends what was really being looked for.

Catch 22 anyone?

Same as Armpits.. The only thing is to talk to him/her about it. Explain yourself, then after you do come tell us cuz i wanna know!

This wouldn't be right, but they might have meant which pill cured MORE people,however badly worded.

Here is what I would have put:

The real question is, how did these researchers ever get funding?

I mean, they didn't even use sample groups of equal sizes. There were no long term studies conducted. No side effects were recorded. Additionally, they did not use a placebo group.

With such bad research technique, it is impossible to tell which pill is more effective.


On a more serious note, is it possible that you were marked wrong for something not related to your answer? For instance, maybe you did not show enough work.

Q1: Pill A cured 75%, Pill B cured 83.3%.

Q2: Pill A cured 40%, Pill B cured 50%.

Q3: Pill B is more effective. It had higher percentages both times.

Yes that is correct. Is that what you came up with?

I'm guessing this is the answer everyone came up with so far?

Other than mine with the relation between how many were cured.

A: 85 B: 60

I believe she was looking for the Pill with the higher percent of cured patients.

You guys appear to be succumbing to Simpson's paradox.

Pill B is NOT better than Pill A given the overall statistics. The percentages hides the weight of each percentage. By assuming that each has the same weight, Pill B appears to be better, when Pill A is the better one.

Maybe your teacher was testing you to see if you would go up to her and ask about it. You obviously failed.

oh wait. gantic is right. it's pretty simple. if you add day 1 and day 2, you get a higher percentage with pill A