The Final Wager – Tue 06 Jan 2015
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After our five-week drought, it rained a 3-time champ last week. Will it pour today with another?
Indeed it will, barring a Clavinesque wager out of Elliot. Poor Val looked like she had some serious stage fright up there.
| Elliot Yates | Alan Hait | Val Hannon |
| 20,000 | 9,600 | 0 |
Elliot will be able to risk up to $799 on his knowledge of:
ASIA
Earlier today I published an analysis of 10 years of Final Jeopardy! clues, in particular whether they were of a “just right” difficulty.
Since this one has only two players, unless one hits and the other misses, it won’t count toward future analyses.
What actually happened
Indeed it won’t, although you can place my vote squarely in the “too easy” category.
The Final Jeopardy! clue
ASIA
MEANING “WATERLESS PLACE”, THIS 500,000-SQUARE MILE AREA LIES IN WHAT’S CALLED A “RAIN SHADOW” OF THE HIMALAYAS
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Keith’s excellent analysis of ten years worth of data on the degree of difficulty of Final Jeopardy answers (follow the “Goldilocks” link below) includes games featuring two finalists. In my original statement of the problem I decided to limit myself to finals featuring all three players. So no update of my far more modest effort from me today. But unofficially I’d second Keith’s “too easy” characterization.
Thanks, Pat – to clarify, I included only two-player Finals with where one player was correct.
It’s funny, Val is a librarian in the city I live in, so I see her sometimes when I go to get books. She was also at the live interview I went on in San Antonio and seemed to do pretty well there. I got pegged for the teachers tournament, but I was wondering if she was going to get her shot on the show. Sorry it didn’t work out for her, but at least she made it.
Hey John, nice job in the ToC (and picture.