The Impossible Question

The Impossible Question

You're in Las Vegas for a three day vacation. It's about five o'clock in the afternoon of your second day in Vegas. You saunter into your hotel room whereupon your significant other asks you a simple question, “How are you doing today in the casino?”. Your goal is to answer as truthfully as possible without confabulation or obfuscation. There is no need to sugar coat the truth or deceive, as you budgeted appropriately for the trip. You simply need to answer the question accurately. Why should this be difficult? Well, I'm getting to that.

Here's your data:

You arrived yesterday afternoon at 4PM and played your favorite machine from 5PM-7PM until dinner time and lost $200. After dinner you resumed play on the same machine and played for six hours straight, losing $600. However, during this six hours of continuous play on the same machine the date changed halfway through. Before midnight you were only down $200. After midnight you lost an additional $400. At 4AM you went to bed for the night and only slept 3 hours, returning to your machine at 8AM after a quick breakfast. During this play session you made back +$100 and then, still tired from your long night, decided to lie down for a quick nap, which turned into 2 hours and fifty minutes. Upon rising from your nap you again returned to your favorite machine and hit a Royal, winning $700 after losses and a tip, before your date with destiny and the impossible question your loved one was about to ask.

“How are you doing today in the casino?”

Here's a list of the data points:
1.Afternoon first day = -200
2.After dinner before midnight -200 (part of continuous 6 hours session)
3.After midnight = -400 (part of continuous 6 hours session)
4.After going to sleep for 3 hours = +100
5.After 2 hour 50 min nap = +700

The obvious problem here is figuring out when your “day” started. You did not go to bed before midnight and get up in the morning, and so have two totally different time scales working in opposition. You could use when you went to sleep and when you got up as the start of your day. But if we are using sleep as a determiner of when your day started, then your nap was only ten minutes shorter than your “sleep for the night”.

Please list a single one sentence numerical answer for the question.

Example: I'm up $X today honeybee.

Then list all your thought processes and justify your answer in as much detail as you can muster.

There is no right or wrong answer to the question itself; This is about the justifications.

Looking forward to some thought provoking answers.

I alway have the same answer "I'm about even honey"! Because if I'm winning she wants to take the money shopping with her, if I'm losing she tells me slow down a little bit.

I would answer that "I'm even for the trip" because I usually don't report individual days. I also tend to skip reporting at all on days that leave me down for the trip. Or I may report my daily average is +/- $x. But, if pressed, my answer would be "I'm up $800 which puts me even for the trip" as my day "ends" once I go up to bed for the "night". Taking a nap in the middle of my "day", even if longer that the sleep I got last "night" is still just a nap to me.

The wife in this thought experiment is not your wife. And your goal is to be completely honest without distortion. She asked for you result "Today" not for the trip. Are you saying that to you, your day in this scenario started at 4PM the previous day and is still ongoing? If so, please explain your thinking.

What you normally do is not in question. You are being asked for your daily result. You will not be pressed to explain it to her. You must simply state an accurate number, not for the trip, but for the day. It's up to you to decide when that started and ended.

~FK

Depending upon the reaction the spouse will give you, it may vary. If you know the spouse will get mad if your loosing, then you simply state your about even. If not, you might be more specific. However, like double_zero suggested, you know if your winning the spouse will want some cash to go shopping, then either fork over her part of the $800 or state your about even.

The amount won or lost doesn't matter, it's the spouses reaction which is the answer to the question.

Thank you for your reply, but I was very careful to mention that the spouse's reaction was not a factor. This is not YOUR spouse. Your only goal is to give as accurate an answer as you can. List your result for the Day, not the trip.

~FK

Leaving the spouse out of it, the total I put in my log for today is $800.

Yesterday, or actually this morning at 4am, before going to bed I would have recorded the final -$600 in my log and closed out the day (the earlier -$200 would have been recorded before dinner). I would not even try to figure out where I was in the middle of a session when midnight happened. Even a new session between midnight and bed would be recorded as the previous date (my electronic log would default to the correct date and I'd backdate it). Anything after closing out a day is a new day to me.

I would not close out a day before taking a nap. If that nap ended up lasting through until my normal get up time for the next day, then I would start day three in the log.

Is this more the answer you're after?

Frank, for a married person, the spouses reaction is always a factor if you want to stay married.

You could have left out the spouse and used a friend instead and then you might have gotten the answer you wanted.

In your original post, your significant other asks, "How are you doing TODAY in the casino?" In his/her mind "today" must mean the calendar day we currently find ourselves in. By definition, each calendar day begins at 12:00am. If you are looking to answer this question truthfully, you must calculate and take into account all gaming activity that occurred after midnight. I am assuming this is why you've clearly stated all gaming results before and after midnight.

So, the response should be,

"Today I am up $400, honeybee."