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Should you Trust your Gut Instinct? (Weekly Brain Potion)

 
 
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Should you Trust your Gut Instinct? (Weekly Brain Potion)
by John Lensmire - Friday, December 15, 2017, 3:30 PM
 

Read the following scenarios and answer write down an answer immediately.

Question 1)

You are really excited to buy a new pair of shoes for the holidays. Unfortunately you like the new "Big Baller Brand" shoes that cost $\$400$. Fortunately it is currently on sale at two stores. The first store offers $70\%$ off. The second store has it on sale for $40\%$ off and you also have a coupon that gives you $40\%$ off the sale price. Which store should you buy the shoes from?

Question 2)

Your family is buying pizza for dinner. You love all kinds of pizza, so you just want to get as much pizza as you can for dinner. Your mom says you can either get one $30$ inch pizza or get two $20$ inch pizzas. Which should you get? (Remember pizzas are circles, and the size given is the diameter.)

Question 3)

Congratulations! You've won the lottery! You can either get $\$50,000$ dollars today or a payment plan. The payment plan is $1$ cent today, $2$ cents next month, $4$ cents two months from now (doubling each month), for two years (so $24$ payments in total). Do you take the $\$50,000$ or the payment plan?

Now that you have your first guesses, go back and work our the problems in more detail. How good was your gut instinct?

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