Dear Pericles,

Of course, I hang my head in shame.

And 23 is correct.

Here is one that throws a few initially.

A four sided stone plinth about a metre high and around 10cm width was discovered in some Roman ruins. At the top was a metal ring of again 10cm diameter. Down one side were inscribed with what look like five Latin words chiseled down the face ;

TOT
IEH
ORS
E
STO

What was it used for?

Dear pelican,

Yes I know it as the Monty Hall problem. It is a beauty. I have an 'uncle' who is a book maker, lives his life with odds yet to this day can't get his head around it. Still thinks I am stooging him. The back story is great too. 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem

Why over 1000 Phd holders wouldn't pause before writing in to tell a woman with an IQ of close to 200 she was wrong is baffling. Arrogance I suppose. Even the esteemed Paul Eros got caught as did the US Director General of Mathematics.

Dear WmTrevor,

Lol. You are of course correct. Pericles moved the decimal point so to speak.

Big sigh of relief… After 20 minutes of maths that's what I hoped, but your "Dear Pericles, Indeed it is." led to a terminal case of self doubt and the return to Economic Statistics textbooks that hadn't been opened for years.

Pericles you are temporarily sin-binned as the "Serafim of posters of clarity on OLO" to Cherubim status. (Looks like Arjay was right! or is it left)

Should that plinth not have read "Ligare equos ad"

I found this one on the web:

It is purported that Einstein said 98 percent of the
world's population could not figure out this logic
problem. Let us know how long it took you:

There are 5 houses each with a different colour.
Their owners, each with a unique heritage,
drinks a certain type of beverage, smokes a
certain brand of cigarette, and keeps a certain
variety of pet.

None of the owners have the same variety of pet, or smokes
the same brand of cogarette, or drinks the same beverage.

CLUES:

The Brit lives in the red house.
The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
The Dane drinks tea.
Looking from in front, the green house
is just to the left of the white house.
The Green house's owner drinks coffee.
The person who smokes Pall Malls raises birds.
The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
The man living in the center house drinks milk.
The Norwegian lives in the leftmost house.
The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one
who keeps cats.
The man who keeps a horse lives next to the man who smokes
Dunhill.
The owner who smokes Bluemasters also drinks beer.
The German smokes Prince.
The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
The man who smokes Blends has a neighbour who drinks water.

Who owns the pet fish?

Answers will be provided on request.

Achtung, ve vill ask de questions ... nein?

Great thread but Lexi, not sure yours above would challenge a bunch of recalcitrant high school kids :)

Oh, the shame of it...

>>Pericles moved the decimal point so to speak<<

Just deserts, WmTrevor...

>>Pericles you are temporarily sin-binned as the "Serafim of posters of clarity on OLO" to Cherubim status<<

Not sure even that will cut it. I'll accept demotion to Belial for the time being, and work my way back.