Potato Paradox - Intuition vs Intelligence

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Assume you have 100 kg of potatoes, which are 99% water and 1% mass. They dried for one day, and the water percentage reduced by 1%. What is the new weight?

When I asked this question orally, the common answer was 99 kg. However, when I asked the same question in writing and gave 1 minute to respond, the answer was 50 kg. The gist of the paradox lies in how 1% change in water led to a reduction of 50 kg in weight.

Let the new weight be X.

When we say the water percentage was reduced by 1%, the new water percentage is 98%. So, what is the other 2% made of? It is 1 kg of mass. 

1 kg of mass = 2% of X

X = 1 kg/2% = 1 * 100/2 = 50 kg.

So, why do many people fail to answer the question when asked orally? Instead of doing the above steps, we simply tend to reduce the 1% mentioned in the question from the overall weight of the potatoes and end up with 99 kg as the answer.

When we were given time and resources to calculate the percentages on a piece of paper or a calculator, we tend to focus on the actual math involved in it.

So, what is the relevance of this paradox in our daily life?

This paradox is less about potatoes and more about our intuition and how our mind handles pressure. When we give the information orally and seek the result immediately, intuition makes more impact than the cognitive ability to analyse the situation.

This highlights how we understand several headlines, slogans, sound bites and social media posts with an intention to react rather than to identify whether it is a real issue or not, and to respond with more clarity.

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