Wednesday, February 25, 2015
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After breaking our nearly four-week drought without a 3-timer, Dava-Leigh goes for number four. Will she get it?
She’ll need some help here tonight – but then again, she’s no stranger to the come-from-behind win.
|
Dava-Leigh Brush |
Michael Camiel |
Laura Gallo |
| 8,200 | 5,800 | 12,600 |
Our players will deal with this Final Jeopardy! category:
| LANGUAGES |
Let’s look at the math.
First-order calculations
Second doubles up
If Dava-Leigh doubles her score, she’ll have 16,400.
To cover this all-in wager, Laura will need to wager 3,800.
| Dava-Leigh | Michael | Laura |
| 8,200 | 5,800 | 12,600 |
| 8,200 | 3,800 | |
| 16,400 | 16,400 |
An incorrect response with that wager will leave Laura with 8,800.
Both Dava-Leigh and Michael must respond correctly to have a shot, so they might as well wager everything.
| Dava-Leigh | Michael | Laura |
| 8,200 | 5,800 | 12,600 |
| 600 | 3,000 | 3,800 |
| 8,800 | 8,800 | 8,800 |
What actually happened
Had Dava-Leigh responded correctly, she would have left $3,700 on the table. That’s one reason I suggest players wager everything if they must respond correctly to win.
The other: the possibility for a math error. The most famous example came in the Season 19 TOC Finals, when Brian Weikle miscalculated by $200.
I realized after originally publishing this that Laura has another somewhat-reasonable wager: 999, keeping her ahead of Michael regardless of what happens.
| Dava-Leigh | Michael | Laura |
| 8,200 | 5,800 | 12,600 |
| 5,800 | 999 | |
| 11,600 | 11,601 |
She might consider this if she feels completely unconfident in the category.
| Dava-Leigh | Michael | Laura |
| 8,200 | 5,800 | 12,600 |
| 4,500 | 999 | |
| 12,700 | 13,599 |
Since Dava-Leigh’s wager fails to take this possibility into account, she should actually get a pink.
I have some thoughts on the Final clue, too – they’re in the spoiler box below.
The Final Jeopardy! clue
| LANGUAGES |
| THEY’RE THE 2 STATES WITH THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WHO SPEAK FRENCH AT HOME |
[spoiler]What are Louisiana and Maine?
Is it a well-known fact that Maine has a lot of French speakers? (Apparently, it’s a dialect called New England French.) I suppose it makes the most sense because it shares the longest land border with Québec of any state.[/spoiler]
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It is a well-known fact, both for the reason you said, and also think about the people who live in the other, more obvious state, and then think about a national park in the less obvious state. (Hopefully this isn’t too spoiler-y.)
I guessed Idaho as the second one, because it is full of names like Coeur d’Alene and Boise (pronounced bwozz if you are a French speaker).