Twenty Questions was a popular radio and television quiz series based on the spoken parlor game which encourages deductive reasoning and creativity. Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... A spoken game is a game uses words instead of cards, boards, game pieces, or other paraphrenalia. ... A parlour game is a group game played indoors. ... Deductive reasoning is the kind of reasoning where the conclusion is necessitated by previously known premises. ... Look up Creativity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

One player is chosen to be the answerer. That person chooses a subject but does not reveal this to the others. All other players are questioners. They each take turns asking a question which can be answered with a simple "Yes" or "No." In variants of the game (see below), multiple state answers may be included such as the answer "Maybe." The answerer answers each question in turn. Sample questions could be: "Is it in this room?" or "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" Lying is not allowed, as it would ruin the game. If a questioner guesses the correct answer, that questioner wins and becomes the answerer for the next round. If 20 questions are asked without a correct guess, then the answerer has stumped the questioners and gets to be the answerer for another round. A typical wooden breadbox. ...

Popular variants

The most popular variant is called "Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Other". In this version, the answerer tells the questioners at the start of the game whether the subject is an animal, vegetable, mineral, or other. The game defines an animal as a member of the animal kingdom, a vegetable as a member of the plant kingdom, a mineral as anything geological, and other as anything else. This can produce odd technicalities, such as a wooden table being classified as a vegetable (since wood comes from trees). Other versions specify that the item to be guessed should be in a given category, such as actions, occupations, famous people, etc. In Hungary, a similar game is named after Simon bar Kokhba. For other uses, see Animal (disambiguation). ... A plate of vegetables Vegetable is a culinary term which generally refers to an edible part of a plant. ... A mineral is a naturally occurring substance formed through geological processes that has a characteristic chemical composition, a highly ordered atomic structure and specific physical properties. ... The Other or constitutive other (also referred to as othering) is a key concept in continental philosophy, opposed to the Same. ... Action, as a concept in philosophy, is what an agent can do, as for instance humans as agents can do. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... For other uses, see Celebrity (disambiguation). ... Simon bar Kokhba (Hebrew: שמעון בר כוכבא, also transliterated as Bar Kokhva or Bar Kochba) was the Jewish leader who led what is known as Bar Kokhbas revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE, establishing an independent Jewish state of Israel which he ruled for three years as Nasi (prince, or...

A spoof of AI and 20 questions

In the early 1980s, a computer program (source unknown) appeared labeled "20 Questions." When first executed, it prints something like, "Let's play 20 questions. I am thinking of something. Enter your questions, and I will answer yes, no or maybe." The program was about 20-30 lines of BASIC, and answers were determined by the last letter in the question. A vowel equaled "yes", a consonant "no" and "y" gave "maybe". The results confounded people as much as ELIZA and was similarly thought by some to be an exceptional example of AI. Both programs are easily confounded by using nonsense, e.g. "Is it a gr$#%le?" will give a yes! Screenshot of Atari BASIC, an early BASIC language for small computers. ... ELIZA is a computer program by Joseph Weizenbaum, designed in 1966, which parodied a Rogerian therapist, largely by rephrasing many of the patients statements as questions and posing them to the patient. ... // This disambiguation page covers alternative uses of the terms Ai, AI, and A.I. Ai (as a word, proper noun and set of initials) can refer to many things. ...

Radio and television

In the 1940s the game became a popular radio panel quiz show, first broadcast at 8pm EST, Saturday, February 2, 1946, on the Mutual Broadcasting System from the Longacre Theatre on West 48th Street in Manhattan. Radio listeners sent in subjects for the panelists to guess in 20 questions; Winston Churchill's cigar was the subject most frequently submitted. On the early shows, listeners who stumped the panel won a lifetime subscription to Pageant. From 1946 to 1951, the program was sponsored by Ronson Lighters. In 1952-53, Wildroot Cream Oil was the sponsor. is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS) was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. ... The Longacre Theatre is a Broadway theatre. ... Manhattan is a borough of New York City, New York, USA, coterminous with New York County. ... Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can) (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. ... Donna Reed on the October 1946 issue Pageant was a 20th-century monthly magazine, first published in the United States by Hillman Periodicals in November 1944. ...

The panel consisted of the creator of the show, Fred Van Deventer (1903-1971), and his wife, Florence, who used her maiden name, appearing on the show as Florence Rinard. Van Deventer was a WOR Radio newscaster with New York's highest-rated news show. Their 14-year-old son, Robert Van Deventer (known on the show as Bobby McGuire) and the program's producer, Herb Polesie, completed the regular panel with daughter Nancy Van Deventer joining the group on occasions. Celebrity guests rarely (though sometimes) contributed to identifying the subject at hand. The Van Deventer family had played the game for years and were so expert at it that they could often nail the answer after only six or seven questions. On one memorable show, Maguire succeeded in giving the correct answer (Brooklyn) without asking a single question. The studio audience was shown the answer in advance and Maguire based his answer on the audience's reaction. During the 1940s, radio studio audiences included many Brooklynites, and they cheered wildly whenever Brooklyn was mentioned in any context.

The moderator was sportscaster Bill Slater (1902-1965). He answered the queries the panel asked in order to identify the subject. This cast remained largely intact throughout the decade-long run of the show. Slater was succeeded at the beginning of 1953 by Jay Jackson, who remained through the final broadcast. Jay Jackson (1919-2005) was an American radio and television quiz show host and announcer, who is far more familiar for a one-off, fictitious host he played on a legendary situation comedy than he ever was in his decade as a real radio and television performer. ...

There were two changes in the juvenile chair on the panel. When McGuire graduated from high school, his decision to go to Duke University meant he could no longer remain on the panel, so he asked his high school friend Johnny McPhee to replace him. Since McPhee was attending Princeton University, he was thus geographically available for the production in New York. McPhee continued until he graduated and was himself succeeded by Dick Harrison (real name John Beebe) in September 1953. Harrison continued until early 1954, when he was replaced by Bobby McGuire, then 22 years old. McGuire appeared as the "oldest living teenager" until the end of the run. Duke University is a private coeducational research university located in Durham, North Carolina, USA. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. ... Princeton University is a private coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States of America. ...

As a television program, Twenty Questions first appeared on WWOR-TV, Channel 9, November 2, 1949, then nationwide on the DuMont Television Network and finally on ABC. The last radio show was broadcast on March 27, 1954, followed by the last TV episode shown on May 3, 1955. WWOR-TV, channel 9, is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, and serving the New York City metropolitan area. ... is the 306th day of the year (307th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... The DuMont Television Network was the worlds first commercial television network, beginning operation in the United States in 1946. ... The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) operates television and radio networks in the United States and is also shown on basic cable in Canada. ... is the 86th day of the year (87th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 123rd day of the year (124th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar). ...

Rights were sold in several other countries, including BBC in the UK, where the subject to be guessed was revealed to the audience by a mystery voice. That format was briefly used again on BBC Radio 4 in the 1990s for a single season hosted by Jeremy Beadle. A TV version was also made by Associated-Rediffusion in the early 1960s. The "mystery voice" gimmick gave rise to a running gag on the radio series I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. A Canadian version, also called Twenty Questions aired on CTV in 1961; its host, Stewart Macpherson, went on to host the Associated-Rediffusion adaptation. BBC Radio 4 is a UK domestic radio station which broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... “TV” redirects here. ... Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British Independent Television (commercial television) contractor for London, on weekdays between 1954 (transmissions started on September 22, 1955) and July 29, 1968. ... Im Sorry I Havent a Clue, sometimes abbreviated to ISIHAC or simply Clue, is a BBC radio comedy which has run since 11 April 1972. ... Twenty Questions was a Canadian television game show, which aired on CTV in the 1961-62 television season. ... This article is about the Broadcast Television Network CTV, for the broadcasting television company see CTVglobemedia. ...

In Norway, 20 Questions has been the most successful radio show ever. The show was running continuously from 1947 to early 1980's at NRK, the Norwegian Broadcasting company. In 2004, the radio show resurrected and regained its popularity. Some of the radio shows are also broadcasted as television programs, since 2006. The Norwegian 20 questions radio and TV shows, "20 spørsmål", are currently running at NRK radio and TV, and are also available at www.nrk.no. A web-based game is also available at www.nrk.no, and a board game was released in 2006, and is currently the prize sent to listeners who beat the panel.

Trivia

• A version of Twenty Questions is played as a parlor game by characters of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
• The game suggests that the information (as measured by Shannon's entropy statistic) required to identify an arbitrary object is about 20 bits. The game is often used as an example when teaching people about information theory. Mathematically, if each question is structured to eliminate half the objects, 20 questions will allow the questioner to distinguish between 2²⁰ or 1,048,576 subjects. Accordingly, the most effective strategy for Twenty Questions is to ask questions that will split the field of remaining possibilities roughly in half each time. The process is analogous to a binary search algorithm in computer science.
• In some variants, the first question asked has the options "Animal, Vegetable or Mineral". This is taken from the "Major-General's Song," a piece from the Gilbert and Sullivan opera The Pirates of Penzance.

"I am the very model of a modern Major-General, I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral, I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical"

• The Oxford Guide to Word Games, by Tony Augarde, Chapter 23, "Twenty Questions," page 197, notes:

"The game has sometimes been called Animal, Vegetable and Mineral or Yes and No. The latter was the name used in Dickens’s Christmas Carol: It was a game called Yes and No, where Scrooge’s nephew had to think of something, and the rest must find out what; he only answering to their questions yes or no, as the case was. The brisk fire of questioning to which he was exposed, elicited from him that he was thinking of an animal, a live animal, rather a disagreeable animal, a savage animal, an animal that growled and grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes, and lived in London, and walked about the streets, and wasn’t made a show of, and wasn’t led by anybody, and didn’t live in a menagerie, and was never killed in a market, and was not a horse, or an ass, or a cow, or a bull, or a tiger, or a dog, or a pig, or a cat, or a bear. At every fresh question that was put to him, this nephew burst into a fresh roar of laughter, and was so inexpressibly tickled, that he was obliged to get up off the sofa and stamp. At last the plump sister, falling into a similar state, cried out:

‘I have found it out! I know what it is, Fred! I know what it is!’

‘What is it?’ cried Fred.

‘It’s your Uncle Scro-o-o-o-oge!’"

A parlour game is a group game played indoors. ... “Dickens” redirects here. ... A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas (commonly known as A Christmas Carol ) is what Charles Dickens described as his little Christmas Book and was first published on December 19, 1843 with illustrations by John Leech. ... Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 - February 24, 2001) has been called the father of information theory, and was the founder of practical digital circuit design theory. ... Claude Shannon In information theory, the Shannon entropy or information entropy is a measure of the uncertainty associated with a random variable. ... This article is about the unit of information. ... A bundle of optical fiber. ... A binary search algorithm (or binary chop) is a technique for finding a particular value in a sorted list. ... Computer science, or computing science, is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. ... Henry Lytton as the Major-General The Major-Generals Song is a patter song from Gilbert and Sullivans 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. ... W. S. Gilbert Arthur Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian era partnership of librettist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900). ... Poster announcing the copyright performance at the Bijou Theatre, Paignton The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. ...

Listen to

• The Glowing Dial: Twenty Questions (March 24, 1946)

See also

• 20Q artificial intelligence
• Guess Who? board game

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

External links

• Twenty Questions at IMDB
• 20Q.net - Play 20 Questions against the computer with this artificial intelligence version of Twenty Questions. Everything that it knows and all questions that it asks were entered by people playing the game.
• Barelybad Web Site Detailed rules of the game.
• One: the movie Independent filmmaker Ward Powers presents interviews employing 20 ultimate questions on the meaning of life. (Is the correct guess "one"?)
• Zoo Keeper: The animal guessing game Version of Twenty Questions restricted to animals.