semantic question

[winterbadger]

Imagine a chessboard with one pawn on it. I hand you a second pawn and ask you to place it two spaces away from the first. You do that.
[Poll #491290]

Comments

[kmusser]

I think most gamers would say two since that's how it's defined in many games. An English major would probably say one though as that's correct if you take the words literally.

[nosebeepbear.livejournal.com]

Really? I've never seen a game define it that way.

[flyingwolf.livejournal.com]

and you're a gamer. I'm neither a gamer or an English major, and just can't see how anyone can say TWO.

[sun-in-splendor.livejournal.com]

As an ex-chess player, I said one space bewteen if you are two spaces AWAY. Chess moves are counted from the starting square (call it 0), so two spaces would have one space between them.

If the question was two spaces BETWEEN, I would have to say two.

[flyingwolf.livejournal.com]

hee - maybe that's it. Wonder how many people that said 2 actually know how to play chess?

[flyingwolf.livejournal.com]

oh - fyi. I told two people to take it, but didn't tell them what my answer was first. (in case you're wondering who these unknown people were taking the test.)

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

One, of course. You always count the starting space.

riddle me this

[nosebeepbear.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to understand the answer of 2. OK...imagine that instead of placing something 2 spaces away you rolled a 2 on a die to move 2 spaces (away (from where you are now)). Then there's one space between where you were and where you are now. What makes this scenario different?

[kmusser]

Yeah, I think it's just sloppy editing but I remember seeing "# of spaces away" and "# of spaces between" being used interchangeably fairly often. I can't think of a specific example though, I don't play games that refer to spaces all that often anymore.

[sidhne.livejournal.com]

That was fun!

I guess Im just a dumbass, but I dont get the question

[john-arundel.livejournal.com]

Oh, wait - I get it now. Your counting the space your in as a space. If the question was move your piece so that there are two spaces inbetween

Re: I guess Im just a dumbass, but I dont get the question

[winterbadger]

Right, the basic question is: does "two spaces away mean 'at a distance of two spaces from the first' or 'with two spaces between it and the first'?"

[winterbadger]

Adding in the responses I got from nonLJ people at work, the poll is 24:10 in favour of "one". I'm still astonished there're that many "two"s, but at least I finally grasp why anyone could possibly think that :-).

[vikingcat.livejournal.com]

I stand by my conclusion: there are two spaces between the pawns, per your question, but one space between the spaces the pawns occupy.

The fact that there are this many 2s isn't half as astonishing as the fact that you got 30 of us to vote on this question. :-)

[cutedeadgirl.livejournal.com]

I answered 2 - I feel there is a difference between "space" and "move". Had you asked 2 moves away it would have been 1.

[flyingwolf.livejournal.com]

did you see when it was a 7-7 tie? eee gads.
I still don't get how anyone could think 2. Unless they read the question wrong.