Unit 1A · Describing center
Balance Point
The data hangs in the air above a beam. Call where you think it balances — then gravity turns on, the values drop, and the beam either holds level or tips over. How close you were is your score.
You have to commit to a number before anything moves, and there is exactly one place that holds. Watch the fulcrum: it starts as a wide block and gets narrower every round, so by the end you need the number, not a feeling. Eleven distributions — six different shapes, from flat to two-humped to badly lopsided — and then one question about what you just watched happen. The numbers are drawn fresh each time you press Start, so there is nothing to memorise and no advantage in going second.
The first six rounds ask for one number: where it balances, and the median is worked out for you and shown once the beam settles. From round seven you call both. You already know how to find a median, so the only genuinely new thing being asked of you all game is the balance point — and where it ends up compared with the median.
Nothing is graded, and nobody is told who played. Mr. Levy sees how many people finished — and if you decide to trade in the badge code at the end, the score written inside it. That is the only way it ever reaches him, and it is your call.
