Did Erika get cheated - do the math
TV ClubHouse: ARCHIVES: Big Brother USA 2003 General Discussions Part 1:
Did Erika get cheated - do the math
Dan | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 07:22 am     I wonder how Robert arrived at 800 hours? That's only 33 1/3 days. |
Crazydog | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 07:39 am     I don't think Robert did ANY kind of math at all. I don't think he's all that bright. He just wrote down a number and lucked out because Erika went over. I don't understand what the purpose of "not going over" is. The purpose is to test the HG's math and deduction skills, right? The person who came CLOSEST should be the winner. Erika was only 6 hours away while Robert was over 600 hours away. It's clear to me that Erika was better at solving the puzzle. Essentially, Robert won HoH by default. Erika overestimated Robert's intelligence. |
Ark | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 07:43 am     In order not to strain his brain, he just wrote down, what to him was a big number. |
Maryk | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 07:52 am     I don't get this "Price is Right" rule either. At least Erika was in the ballpark while Robert was way off. Oh well... |
Crossfire | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 08:08 am     This is not exactly mensa material, getting close should have been a piece of cake. That is where the PIR clause comes in handy to make it challenging. In my mind, going over was just as bad as Robert's pathetic guess. |
Flamingo | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 08:10 am     Erika actually tried to think the answer through. Robert didn't bother and just wrote down a number and fell ass backwards into this HOH. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. |
Crossfire | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 08:14 am     Had she thought about it, she would have probably won. She wrote it out, she had the numbers right in front of her. |
Crazydog | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 08:20 am     Cross, she DID think about it. She just misestimated the exact time when the exes walked in. She was off by only SIX hours. I think it's clear that she actually tried to compute the number. I don't think it's exactly a piece of cake. You had to know exactly how many days they were in the house first, and I'm not sure how many of them are actually counting every day - they don't have a calendar. They probably just know how many weeks they have been there. |
Riviere | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 08:27 am     Another example of a lame HoH competition. It's obvious Robert didn't try to do any math! And if Erika was smarter herself she'd have erased 72 hours from whatever she'd calculated to not risk going over. Maybe she wanted Robert to win. |
Flamingo | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 08:27 am     and know exactly what hour the exes came in the house and exactly how many hours left in the current day. And calculate it all in, what, 10 seconds? |
Crossfire | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 08:30 am     While it is a debatable point, I do think they have a really good idea how many days they have been locked up. With that info in hand, if you are going to cut your answer that close, given the rules, you absolutely must leave a bigger window of opportunity on the low side as going over was simply not a valid option. I concede that she did compute the numbers, which is why I think she could have done better. Maybe I am just an idiot, but once I had my number, I'd have loped off about 100 hours just to be safe. |
Laura11103 | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 08:31 am     I was majorly disappointed that Erika lost, what a shame that was. She should've went just a little lower just in case, so sad. Now Robert'll probably win, yuck. Funny though, my mom likes him ane wants him to win cuz of his daughter, I say gimme a break. |
Brenda1966 | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 08:33 am     Erikas mistake was in not making sure she didn't go over. Quickly, in my head, I thought 24 hours times 60 days, well 2 X 6 is 12 so 1200. It would have been a good guess w/out the risk of going over. She should have known Robert wouldn't be able to do the math. I suspected that Ali threw the challenge because she thinks no one will get rid of her. I'd love to see someone have to guts to toss her rear out of that house. I really fear Jun is going and that makes me sad. But I agree that having Robert as HOH should make this week at least a bit interesting. |
Earthmother | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 08:36 am     She counted 60 days, however not realizing that the exs weren't there the whole 1st day. If she had just rounded it off to 1400..why oh why didn't she just round it off? Hopefully Robert's hormones will be his deciding factor, obviously he's once again smitten with Erika... |
Reichenfan8 | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 08:37 am     Yeah, yeah, it sucks for Erika and whatnot, but I don't know why all the sudden there are so many complaints. They've often had this "closest without going over rule" on past competitions, and on many other competitive game shows (someone mentioned the Price is Right), so it's not as if they created this new "closest without going over rule" just to ensure his HOH win. So I think it was fair. Yeah, Robert got lucky, but it was in no way unfair. |
Crossfire | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 08:42 am     In my head, it would have been "Oh Shit!, 24*60, that's really 25*60 which is really 50*30 which is 3*5=1500" 1500 toss 100 just in case=1400, hand over the key bub. And even my guess which takes only a few seconds, is too darn close for comfort. |
Realbiz | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 08:46 am     Well Erika lost. Case closed. |
Hamsterhunter | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 09:54 am     None of this meshed well with me last night. Julie's statement of Day 61 really threw me off. I had done the same calcualtion as Erika (60days x 24hours/day = 1440hours) thinking I wouldn't have gone over. I was shocked to be wrong and felt unsure if Erika was cheated or not. . To be sure of the math, I used a spreadsheet today and backtracked. Assuming that 0-hour was Wed.03.Sep at 5:50pm BBT (the question time), then the 1-hour mark would be Wed.03.Sep at 4:50pm BBT, the 2-hour mark would be Wed.03.Sep at 3:50pm, and so on. . Assuming I heard correctly, that the answer was 1436-hours, that hour mark would have occured on Sat.05.Jul at 9:50pm. This meshes well with the game start date and probably the time the Exes came into the house. Everything would seem okay and therefore Erika was not cheated as per the instructions given. . On a confusing note, Erika asked the camera operator, on the Live Feeds after the competition was over, what the answer was. The camera nodded yes (up down movement) when Erika asked if it was 1433-hours. That would have occured on Sun.06.Jul at 12:50am. Also a possibility. . Finally, we only have BB's word on when the Exes entered. For Erika to have been ripped-off of the HoH title, the Exes would have had to enter at 5:50pm on Sat.05.Jul. . The issue is resolved for me, hopefully my calcualtions will appease those who felt as strongly as myslef that something was rigged (a la the Justin elephant question). . cheers |
Busydizzle | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 10:10 am     It's definitely fair, but in this case it's obvious that Erika did a better job on the whole. It's just unfortunate that the "without going over" rule was in effect for this particular question. As for this not being "Mensa material", that's also true. But think about the immense amount of pressure that they were under. It might be easy for us to say, "She should have thought about when the exes came in, and then done the calculations and then subtracted some to be safe." But she probably had less than fifteen seconds from the time the question was read to the time Julie asked for an answer. |
Jdel | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 10:10 am     The girls redid the math last night while robert was in the DR and they all agreed that she was over and Robert won. Erika walked around for hours says 7 hours and beating herself up. |
Justshirley | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 10:20 am     The reason they do the "closest without going over" thing is to avoid the possibility of another tie. The answer was 1434 -- had Erika guessed 1440 and Robert guessed 1428, they would have both been off by 6, resulting in another deadlock. |
Crossfire | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 10:23 am     Absolutely, she came off looking pretty darn good compared to her competition. I probably got off track, my intention was only to defend the outcome. While it 'feels' frustrating to reward the slacker for a shoddy guess, he did win fair and square. On another note, I'd like to see BB tighten up these contests that seem to have some random time interval where Julie waits for a couple of seconds then starts ragging on people. They need an audible timer or something to firm it up in the fairness department. I get annoyed when Julie interrupts people when they are trying to think. |
R151996 | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 10:37 am     The original HGs entered the house after dark on July 5. Studio City is located just north of Beverly Hills, and the US Naval Observatory site lists Beverly Hills sunset at 8:09 pm with twilight ending at 8:38 pm on July 5. So the original HGs likely entered around 9:00 pm. July 5 was therefore Day 1, making September 3 Day 61. The original 8 had their welcome get-together and the initial food competition before learning of the X Factor. From what the originals said there was another half-hour to hour after that revelation until the exes entered the house. So midnight would easily be a plausible time for the entry of the last HGs. The question was worded to answer to the nearest whole hour. Counting back 1434 hours (the correct answer) from the time of the comp (5:50 pm BB time) last night, that would place the exes entering between 11:20 pm July 5 and 12:20 am July 6. Once Erika got the 1440 number, all she had to do was knock off a day or even 20 hours to be safe. |
Smowen99 | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 10:57 am     Here is a post from a BB4 Fan who did the math. This information was posted at: www.mortystv.com/big_brother Brett Harvey writes this solution: "The HGs entered July 5. The Ex's entered at midnight July 6th. 26 days in July. 31 days in August. 2 days in Sept. That's 58 days. (1416) Add 18 hours they had been in the house yesterday (Sept 3). 1434 hours." |
Outlawout | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 11:00 am     I agree with Crossfire. Give them a ten-second timer or something. In a few seconds they have to think about the nuances of the question (Time the EXES have been in the house, "without going over"), assess the competition's skills (Erika's major flaw), try to remember the exact number of days and the hour they came in versus the hour the competition is taking place, AND then do some pretty quick math based on all of that remembering. Throw in Julie talking to them and no clear deadline and it seems lke an impossibly pressured situation. I was amazed that Erika came so close. I couldn't have done it. |
Busydizzle | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 11:03 am     "Once Erika got the 1440 number, all she had to do was knock off a day or even 20 hours to be safe." Again, she was under a great deal of pressure and Julie told her to write an answer. Hindsight is 20/20. |
Crossfire | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 11:05 am     I don't dispute that. She was, and it is. |
Busydizzle | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 12:04 pm     Cross, I was responding to R151996's quote. Not you, silly. :P |
Professorchaos | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 08:30 pm     If you want to get technical, Alison, Erika, and Jun are also exes, and they had been in the house longer than 1440 hours. |
R151996 | Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 09:50 pm     Professorchaos, the longest ANY HGs had been in the house at 6:00 pm BB time Wednesday night was 1437 hours, a maximum three hours before the exes. See my post seven above this one for the calculation. |
Shoegalnj | Friday, September 05, 2003 - 03:22 am     I do think the game was slanted towards Robert. It should have gone to the person who was closest to the actual number. They knew Erika would be closer to the number than Robert. If he had a brain he'd be dangerous. |
Crossfire | Friday, September 05, 2003 - 03:43 am     "I do think the game was slanted towards Robert." What makes you think that? Lets look at your evidence. "They knew Erika would be closer to the number than Robert." Oops, looks like it is slanted toward Erika. |
|