Let’s Play Jeopardy! Today’s Category: Fun With Numbers

One of my favorite old Saturday Night Live skits was when Will Ferrell did a dead-on Alex Trebek imitation and played “Jeopardy” with three wacky celebrities.

Ferrill, as Trebek, was constantly frustrated by the panelists’ inability to provide a question for even the most basic answers. He even resorted to answers like “a number, any number” for Final Jeopardy and still didn’t get a correct response.

Poor Alex………I mean Will.

My most recent viewing of this skit (on the excellent “The Best of Will Ferrell “ DVD) happen to coincide with my reading of a book called “This is Your Brain on Music” by Daniel Levitin.

As only this strange mind can do, I began to imagine some of the very intriguing numbers in the book as its own category in my own little version of Jeopardy. Of course, Ferrell is hosting and this time he’ll get the right questions (it’s only fair, right?)…………..

“Today’s only category is “Fun with Numbers from ‘This is Your Brain On Music’”

“Professor Starbucker (remember, this is made up), you have control of the board, please select”

“Thanks, Alex - I’ll take Fun with Numbers for $100″

“The answer is: It takes 10,000 hours to achieve it”

Professor Starbucker buzzes in: “What is the practice time it takes, according to the book, to achieve true mastery in ANYTHING?”

“That is correct - Levitin notes that ‘in study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again’“

“Starbucker, you still have the board”

“Thanks Will, I mean, Alex - I’ll take Fun With Numbers for $200″

“The answer is: It takes 50,000 years”

Starbucker buzzes in (again): “What is the minimum amount of years for an adaptation to show up in the human genome?”

“Correct again, Starbucker! The book calls this ‘evolutionary lag’ - the time lag between when an adaptation first appears in a small proportion of individuals and when it becomes widely distributed in the population. Quotes Levitin, ‘many of the problems we face today have come to torment us because our bodies and brains were designed to handle life the way it was for us 50,000 years ago’”

“Now, let’s play Final Jeopardy. Professor Starbucker is ahead with $300, and it’s quite likely he’ll win since there are no other players, but let’s carry on anyway…….”

The final answer is: “this number exceeds the number of known particles in the entire known universe”

Dum dum dum dum, dum dum dum, dum dum dum dum ,DUM, dum dum dum dum dum………….

“OK, let’s see what the question is- Starbucker what did you wager? $300, of course. What an all-or-nothing guy!”

“He wrote down, ‘What is the number of possible neuron combinations possible in the human brain?’”

“Wow, you are correct again Starbucker!! You win! What a great example of the human brain’s incredible computational power, as illustrated in the book by Levitin.”

“Any parting words, Professor?”

“Well, I’m happy to win but I owe it all to Mr. Levitin, who has put together a fascinating book about how our brains process music, and also explains the mystery of why those love songs “get us” so much.”

“Alex, maybe some of your other “contestants” should buy this book too”

“Starbucker, I only wish they would……………. :-)”