# How good is your eyeballing skills? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 7, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865 "2008-10-07T17:15:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/41 "2008-10-07T19:27:50Z")
in a real circle you would have to guess at the quadrant boundries, rather than having them marked ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/42 "2008-10-07T19:33:05Z")
> [@Santo\_Rugger](#): > > I didn’t think that was cheating; how else would one center a circle without using the quadrants? Just eyeballing it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![N.Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f19dbf/32.png) [@N.Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N.Sane)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/43 "2008-10-07T19:39:54Z")
I got it down to an average error of 5.97. Presumably if I were to keep sitting here and playing around, I’d get a little better. But I wouldn’t do that. Nuh-uh. No sirree. Waste my time on some silly–did you notice that if you try to replay, it skips the parallelogram? So I have to click back and forth between the thread and the game. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/44 "2008-10-07T19:42:54Z")
:smack: I fucking suck at parallelograms! Your inaccuracy by category: Parallelogram 9.4 15.0 23.1 Midpoint 5.0 8.9 2.2 Bisect angle 1.9 1.1 0.3 Triangle center 2.5 1.3 1.9 Circle center 1.0 2.2 2.2 Right angle 2.2 2.8 2.5 Convergence 5.8 1.0 1.4 Average error: 4.46 (lower is better) My eyes are bad anyway (I can’t afford glasses right now) and this game is NOT helping. But it’s fun. ---
**Author:** ![RogueRacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/45 "2008-10-07T19:45:38Z")
Another attempt. Your inaccuracy by category: Parallelogram 3.0 2.0 1.0 Midpoint 1.0 3.6 1.0 Bisect angle 1.8 1.8 1.5 Triangle center 1.3 3.0 6.9 Circle center 0.0 1.0 3.0 Right angle 0.4 6.7 1.2 Convergence 5.1 1.4 0.0 Average error: 2.22 (lower is better) I’m now retiring. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/46 "2008-10-07T19:49:07Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > in a real circle you would have to guess at the quadrant boundries, rather than having them marked True, but just putting an imaginary horizontal line will do the same thing, though. You’re probably right, but you’ve still gotta line up the crosshair to the marks, which is arguably the same as what the other exercises have you do. > [@featherlou](#): > > Just eyeballing it. 🙂 😛 😃 ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/47 "2008-10-07T19:56:24Z")
Average Error: 5.57 Lowest Error: 0.8 (90 degree angle) Highest Error: 35.0 [Convergence. I actually got better the second and third time and scored 6.4 and 11.2 (well okay, not much better)] That was pretty fun Incidentally the second time I got 4.43 Low: 0.3 Right angle High: 17 Convergence (I really thought I nailed this one too…weird) ---
**Author:** ![Purgatory\_Creek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@Purgatory\_Creek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purgatory_Creek)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/48 "2008-10-07T20:02:27Z")
I was better at this than I thought I would be: Your inaccuracy by category: Parallelogram 7.1 5.4 1.0 Midpoint 1.4 1.0 1.0 Bisect angle 2.0 1.9 0.2 Triangle center 1.0 3.9 2.3 Circle center 1.4 5.0 1.4 Right angle 7.1 1.3 0.5 Convergence 5.0 2.8 3.2 Average error: 2.66 (lower is better) ---
**Author:** ![Daerlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Daerlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daerlyn)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/49 "2008-10-07T20:12:21Z")
Your inaccuracy by category: Parallelogram 4.5 5.0 8.9 Midpoint 2.2 0.0 7.1 Bisect angle 0.3 5.1 1.9 Triangle center 3.5 16.7 3.7 Circle center 4.2 1.0 5.8 Right angle 1.0 1.1 1.3 Convergence 1.4 3.2 0.0 Average error: 3.71 I seriously hate those triangles. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/50 "2008-10-07T20:32:19Z")
Your inaccuracy by category: Parallelogram 1.4 1.0 1.0 Midpoint 2.2 1.0 4.5 Bisect angle 2.5 8.2 0.6 Triangle center 2.9 1.7 3.7 Circle center 4.1 1.0 2.0 Right angle 2.5 3.9 0.9 Convergence 3.6 2.2 2.2 Average error: 2.53 (lower is better) Would have been pretty good if it wasn’t for that rogue bisection… it was a very narrow angle which made it surprisingly difficult, oddly. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/51 "2008-10-07T20:34:05Z")
Overall score: 5.99 ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/52 "2008-10-07T21:01:05Z")
Parallelogram 8.2 11.0 18.8 Midpoint 1.0 2.8 4.5 Bisect angle 0.3 3.5 5.0 Triangle center 35.4 5.1 6.0 Circle center 1.0 3.2 1.0 Right angle 5.2 0.5 1.0 Convergence 4.0 5.4 11.0 Average error: 6.38 I didn’t understand the triangle one at first (35.4, agh), so I tried again and got an average of 6.29, which isn’t much better. ---
**Author:** ![Rapier42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/90db22/32.png) [@Rapier42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rapier42)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/53 "2008-10-07T21:06:39Z")
Your inaccuracy by category: Parallelogram 3.2 11.0 1.4 Midpoint 3.2 7.3 4.1 Bisect angle 6.6 1.0 1.8 Triangle center 6.3 8.6 1.7 Circle center 1.4 3.6 3.6 Right angle 11.6 1.3 3.0 Convergence 5.1 2.8 4.0 Average error: 4.41 (lower is better) My first run through, I got zero on the first “find the midpoint”, but 74.something on the first “make a parallelogram”, cuz I didn’t know what I was doing. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/54 "2008-10-07T21:10:57Z")
The aspect ratio of your monitor may throw this off. I noticed on my old CRT that the circle wasn’t a circle. So I used an envelope to gauge the “right angle” that it said was correct (I was WAY OFF on the right angles). The right angles weren’t right angles, either. Luckily, I have another monitor right here (laptop) and cut my score in half - true score is closer to a 3 than a 6 - by using a different monitor. On the laptop monitor the circles look true and the right angles actually are 90 degrees. So if you’re getting a horrible score it might be the monitor. Easiest test is to check with something relatively 90 degrees to see if it’s close. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/55 "2008-10-07T21:28:37Z")
average error: 3.70, lowest 0.0 on parallelogram, highest 12.0 on parallelogram 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Maui\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Maui\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maui_Lion)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/56 "2008-10-07T23:04:14Z")
Your inaccuracy by category: Parallelogram 34.8 ---- ---- Midpoint 8.5 ---- ---- Bisect angle 3.4 ---- ---- Triangle center 18.1 ---- ---- Circle center 3.0 ---- ---- Right angle 1.4 ---- ---- Convergence 15.5 ---- ---- Average error: 12.10 (lower is better) Overall not too bad for my first try I think… ---
**Author:** ![TheBoltEater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheBoltEater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBoltEater)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/57 "2008-10-07T23:44:45Z")
I never would have guessed how much better I am at convergence than parallelograms. Convergence - 0.0, 2.0, 0.0 Parallelograms - 10.0, 3.6, 14.6 Overall, first try, 3.98 ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/58 "2008-10-08T00:03:47Z")
2.01 !!! If I hadn’t boned the first of the angle bisections and gotten a 6.3, It could have been under 2. My second ang bisection was 0.2, though, so i kinda made up for it. And I’m definitely a clutch player, because when I needed a good score to get my average under the previous best-of-the-last 500, I got a 0.0 on the final puzzle (the third convergence). Apparently I can do it when I have to. =) ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Credible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/59 "2008-10-08T00:10:52Z")
Your inaccuracy by category: Parallelogram 2.2 / 2.2 / 15.7 Midpoint 1.0 / 4.0 / 2.2 Bisect angle 0.5 / 2.6 / 1.8 Triangle center 1.7 / 8.8 / 8.9 Circle center 2.0 / 3.6 / 5.0 Right angle 2.6 / 3.8 / 6.1 Convergence 2.0 / 4.2 / 5.8 Average error: 4.13 (lower is better) That was pretty fun. Triangle center seemed to give me the most trouble. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865/60 "2008-10-08T00:13:59Z")
Parallelogram 5.0 3.6 1.4 Midpoint 5.0 5.4 3.6 Bisect angle 2.8 3.4 0.4 Triangle center 8.9 1.6 2.3 Circle center 1.0 2.8 2.2 Right angle 0.4 1.0 1.3 Convergence 2.2 3.0 2.2 Average error: 2.83 (lower is better) I was happy that I did better as I went on. > [@wolfman](#): > > a bit of a cheat I couldn’t help but figure out Yeah, I noticed that also. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-your-eyeballing-skills/466865.md?page=4)