You didn’t answer and you didn’t answer my further questions to you:
If it’s ambiguous, what other meaning do you think it can have other than “the symbol of this element”? Do you think it can also mean “this element symbol”? Again, if so, than “silver” could never have been deemed correct. If something else, what?
Since your premise (namely, “Then I don’t know why you bothered separating it in bold and declaring that the answer is “Silver” and not "silver and Ag.”) is wrong, I don’t understand the question. You may restate it if you like.
It’s not a premise; it’s me stating I don’t know what your motivation for doing something is. I’ll start over.
You say, “Ag is the answer to either of the questions. Silver is the answer to the first one only.”
When you say “silver is the answer to the first one only”, do you mean that silver is the only answer, or might Ag wok also?
How does “this element’s symbol” differ from "this element’s symbol?
What do you think “Ag is the answer to either of the questions” means?
One asks for “element”. The other asks for “element’s symbol”.
I’ll ask again. If you don’t want to answer, I’ll give up.
When you say “silver is the answer to the first one only”, do you mean that silver is the only answer, or might Ag work also?
Of COURSE Ag will work also. Now answer my question: what do you think the sentence “Ag is the answer to either of the questions” means?
Pardon me for not realizing that. You wrote:
Ag is the answer to either of the questions. Silver is the answer to the first one only.
I guess I should have known to interpret that as Ag is the answer to either of the questions. Silver and Ag is the answer to the first one only.?
I simply asked and I think with good reason. Not sure why this is getting you so perturbed.
There aren’t too many other ways to rephrase that any better. Why do you think I don’t know what that means?
Because then you wouldn’t be asking if Ag “might work” for the first question.
You’re right (I think). My brain is starting to hurt going back and keeping track of all these posts. Sorry for wasting your time on this.
The Carrollian “name of the song is called” discussion is interesting, but possibly beside the point.
The point of Jeopardy rules and rulings, surely, is to make sure the contestant really does know the answer.
Thus, “emmancipation” might be accepted where “emancipatation” would be rejected—because the first, misspelled though it is, shows that the contestant knows that EMANCIPATION is the called-for answer. But the “emancipatation” response does not demonstrate that the contestant knows the called-for answer.
The judges ruled incorrectly on the Silver/Ag question, for the reason mentioned by a couple of people already: the “AG”-writing contestant might have been faking it. He might, for example (as discussed earlier) have known that “Ag” was the first non-matching symbol, but have been cloudy on what element the Ag represents.
The judges’ decision violates the “make sure the contestant really does know the answer” guiding principle behind Jeopardy rules.
The OP is right.
I’m not entirely sure I would accept “Ag,” but let’s say I did. That is not a question that is making a distinction between an element and a symbol. A question that mentions both, in my opinion, is asking for “silver” with the “element” part and “Ag” for the symbol part.
And, as Sherrerd points out, it’s not impossible that the person knew “Ag” as a symbol but wasn’t sure what it stood for. Is it silver? Or is it mercury? Or gold?
Once again, I’m fine with the ruling, but I would not be outraged if they only accepted “silver,” as that is what my reading of the question is looking for.
Absolutely. (especially after this thread :)) To me, that does not involve a distinction between an element’s name and symbol. Either would be acceptable.
Also, sorry about screwing up the clue. I should have checked Tivo again. (Oh yes, this Jeopardy episode is going to be on there for a while.)
Note to self: delete the word travesty from your vocabulary.
Wow. And I’m the one who’s been labeled a “hyper-pedant”.
In what language was the Jeopardy! program broadcast?
Well if one says that “Ag” is not an element than neither is “silver”.
You’re taking the statement out of context. As a response, it makes sense:
[QUOTE=K364]
Because Ag is a symbol, not an element.
[/QUOTE]
The point being made is that if Ag is not an element but a symbol, then silver is not an element but a word.
The distinction between name and symbol is for the purpose of determining the element. The element Aardvarkian, with symbol Vk, would not have been the answer, even though Aardvarkian is alphabetically before Ag. The occurrences of “element symbols” and of “element’s symbols” were both for specifying that only the symbols were being alphabetized.
The question asked for the element, and did not specify “element’s name” for the answer.
Spouse and I conjectured that the first 10 years were 1984-1994 hence this series features people of the ‘‘80’s’’ decade.
[BTW, I thought the answer discussed above should have been ‘‘silver’’. I also think the symbol is “Ag” and not “AG”.]
you think right.