Comments on: Which way is this bus traveling?

By: Bing Halvorson

Bing Halvorson — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:03:59 +0000

With all due respect to these smart preschoolers, it’s clear that their answer (which is brilliant in its simplicity) is aided by the fact that they cannot conceive of confounding aspects to the scenario.To use the visibility of the door as a clue to the direction of the bus overlooks the fact that if you are standing on the ‘other’ side of the street (or, by analog, living in a country where the directions for the left and right lanes are reversed), you would come up with the direct opposite conclusion.So this is both a good thing and a bad thing. A preschooler can at least come up with a simple answer (which has a 50% probability of being right). An adult will come up with a hedged response, which covers 100% of the possibilities, but suffers a dramatic loss of simplicity.

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:15:43 +0000

I thought we were seeing the back of the bus, and it was moving into the page/screen.I accept the preschooler’s answer for that interpretation of the graphic, but claim that that interpretation is not the only acceptable one due to the high level of abstraction.

By: Who Cares

Who Cares — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:06:58 +0000

What if the bus is not going left or right but moving in a direction that is into/out of the screen?

By: Jocelyn

Jocelyn — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 09:52:41 +0000

Now wait a second. How do we know the bus isn’t going backwards? Maybe the bus driver turned the wrong way down a one-way street and is frantically backing up.

By: catswym

catswym — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:52:35 +0000

my answer was “you can’t tell” because, like three-fitty my first thought was “there is no windshield.” which also made me think that the opposite side of the bus would look identical (just three windows and no door).i’m not sure what that says about me.

By: Virgil Samms

Virgil Samms — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:52:04 +0000

It’s not traveling at all; it just sits there on my monitor, immobile.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:42:08 +0000

All we need to do is to substitute “left” the preschoolers’ formula to “the side you get out on depending on what country you live in.” (i.e., correct side or opposite side)

By: Three-Fitty

Three-Fitty — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:22:39 +0000

The ‘bus’ has no windshield, so the correct answer is that the bus cannot be moved, so says the Motor Vehicle Code. Obviously the maker of this test is dumber than a high school junior.

By: pelf

pelf — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 04:43:08 +0000

Vehicles in Malaysia have doors on the left, so technically speaking, the bus is travelling to the right.Still, the pre-schoolers won. I wouldn’t have thought of that reasoning! 😀

By: stephenk

stephenk — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 01:32:04 +0000

It is travelling left to rightand the door is on the far side and to the right (front). Oh, and there’s a door in the middle too, to get out of.:-)Stephenk(Australia)