Monday, March 1, 2010

KK City Hunt 2010—Calculation Error

Something the CoC said during the hunt briefing on Saturday afternoon caught my attention. He said it as a passing remark, but I knew immediately it had a special significance to the hunt. He said something about this year's City Hunt as that of the 10th edition. I remember saying to myself that perhaps one of the questions the next day might have something to do with that piece of information.

I looked around and realised that nobody paid any attention to that particular statement. I thought it was a little strange. I meant to comment on it later in this blog, but my mind was occupied by my immediate concerns in terms of the hunt as a whole.

And then, true enough, on the day of the hunt, we had this as the very last question:

Q30) In forty years on, you can call our City Day hunt this.

Upon reading the above question, I immediately remembered what the CoC said the previous day. Which would make the City Day hunt its 50th edition in forty years' time. The next step was of course to think of all the possible answers to connect to "50th". But maybe it's referring to the year also. Therefore, we had to keep our eyes open for 2050. Then we also had to watch out for MML, which is the Roman numeral for 2050.

Incidentally, I was aware of a business named MML Tile Gallery or something like that somewhere along Jalan Bundusan. I could remember that name because I actually used that sign as one of the answers in my own hunt just a few months ago. I thought maybe there's another outlet of that company along this stretch of road. But unfortunately, we could not find MML.

On a second sweeping of that long road, we spotted THE GOLD EDITION on a signboard. But according to Vivian, she saw that board earlier and actually mentioned in. However, I did not hear her somehow.

THE GOLD EDITION obviously fits perfectly to "you can call our City Day hunt" because 10 plus 40 is 50. So we took this answer even though at the back of my mind, it was a wrong answer! The trouble with THE GOLD EDITION is that the CoC made a serious calculation error.

Although 2010 is the 10th anniversary of Kota Kinabalu City, the City Day Hunt only started a year after Kota Kinabalu was declared a city, thus making this year's hunt the 9th edition as opposed to the 10th edition. In 40 years from now, we would be having the 49th edition of the hunt, and not the 50th edition—a tiny detail which rules out THE GOLD EDITION.

Strictly from the technical and factual point of view, this was a serious error on the part of the CoC. Who knows, maybe this very question can be recycled for next year because by then THE GOLD EDITION would be perfect!


8 comments:

scute said...

I am almost certain that there was no Hunt in 2003.

Cornelius said...

scute,

To be quite honest, I am unsure if Sunday's hunt was the 9th because the first one was in 2001, or because there was a break in 2003. But the point I'm trying to make here is that either way, it's the 9th hunt, not the 10th.

On page 2 of the souvenir book, under "INTRODUCTION", the opening paragraph says:

"For the 9th year running, once again DBKK and Tourism Malaysia jointly organize the annual treasure hunt event in conjunction with 10th KK City Anniversary Celebration 2010"

That word "running" tells me that there's no break in between these annual hunt. But whether or not there's a break, this was the 9th. In 40 years from now, it would be the 49th, not the 50th.

2 Romans 1 Impostor said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
2 Romans 1 Impostor said...

Look at the Answer from the angle of:

2050 = the year KK city will be celebrating its Golden Anniversary.

which will imply that any event held in that year will be a Gold(en) one.

and you may be more forgiving.

Cornelius said...

2R1I,

Please don't get me wrong, it's not a case of wanting forgiveness. After all, my team did get the 2 points for the question! I'm bringing this up strictly for discussion on technical and factual grounds.

I suppose one can try to defend that CoC's idea along your lines of argument. In fact, I did consider that for a moment before posting this discussion. But I thought, if that was the argument put forward by the CoC, it is a weak point.

In the question, it says "you can call City Day hunt this"

Why mention "hunt" at all? The emphasis is on the hunt, not the City Day celebration. The way I see it, if the emphasis is on the hunt, then it is there that we should focus.

When looking at the clue from the "hunt" point of view, I think the best way of looking at it is by supposition.

Now suppose that we don't have any treasure hunt at all from the first day KK was declared the city status. And then in 2050, for the very first time, a treasure hunt is organised.

How, then, would that hunt be publicised? Do we promote it as:

1) FIRST City Day Hunt 2050

or

2) 50th (GOLD EDITION) City Day Hunt 2050

I don't know about the rest of you, but I would choose (1) above.

Gutuk said...

Let us understand the question properly:

1. In forty years on, you can call our City Day "h"unt this.
- This year is the 10th so in 40 years on will be the 50th.. the golden year for the city day..

2. In forty years on, you can call our City Day "H"unt (??) this.

Cornelius said...

Ummm... Gutuk, thanks for your comment, but you must forgive me, my friend, I've just arrived home from the day's work at the office. My brain is a bit tired, and I have no clue what you're talking about.

I'm trying to understand why you put the H in quotes (that was not the case in the hunt question). And as I said above, it is a known fact that this year's hunt is the 9th, not the 10th. So in 40 yrs from now, it should be the 49th hunt.

Am going for my run in Likas shortly, and I will try harder to understand those quotes on the H, but pray explain yourself, my friend. I'd like to hear your ideas on this issue.

Cornelius said...

By the way, Gutuk, if you are saying that the CoC was referring to the City Celebration, then as I said earlier, why mention the word HUNT at all?

Why not just say:

In forty years on, you can call our City Day Celebration this.

In which case, I can accept 50th.

But no, the question says:

In forty years on, you can call our City Day hunt this.

Immediately we ask ourselves, why "hunt"? Does it really matter whether that "H" is in capital or small letter? A hunt is still a hunt, isn't it?

Ok, I'm really outta here!

Later!