Jeopardy Goofed!

I was watching last night's segment of the annual Tournament of Champions, and one of the answers was given as "What is a silver dollar?" in response about a Susie B. The contestant was given credit for a correct answer. Shame on Alex Trebek! I thought he knew everything.

Chris

 

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Wish I would've seen that for myself.... sounds very interesting

 

Really?

 

Hard to believe.

 

I saw it too, one of the rare times I even watch the telee. I thought the answer should have been "a dollar coin".

 

In common vernacular, any dollar coin not gold colored is called a silver dollar, so the answer is correct.

 

I see nothing wrong, even though the best answer would have been "a dollar coin". The fact that she also said silver wasn't enough to void the answer. The next contestant would have said "a dollar coin", then she could have argued that the coin was silver. Who is to say she meant silver content or silver color?

 

I'd sue him. If they say it on TV, it has to be true, that's the law.

 

The response may have been suitable for a layman, but it would not be okay for a numismatist. Besides that, this question/answer was posed in the "Double Jeopardy" round (second) where responses are required to be more precise than in the "Jeopardy" round (first).

Chris

 

"[N]or shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb..." I say throw the Fifth Amendment at Alex, too.

 

My wife, who is NOT the coin collector in our household, noted the mistake last night. That really surprised me!

 

This reminds me of when I was practicing for the AP English Language exam, in one of the practice essays they had you write about whether or not America should stop making pennies. Yes, pennies. I know it's common to call them pennies, but they even had a picture of the chain cent (clearly saying "ONE CENT") in the prompt. Tsk tsk College Board...

 

Ask for a roll of "cents" at a bank and see the funny looks you get. Yet although the rolls clearly say "pennies," there are fifty coins in there clearly saying "cent." Figure that out.

 

You guys have just opened up a can of worms... you'll see what I mean

 

Yeh, that answer had me grinding my teeth.
BUT
If you consider the answer as a description of the color and not the metal content then it's acceptable.

 

Everyone knows what a penny is. Everyone knows what a silver dollar is.
Does it make your life any harder, worse or hurt your wallet when someone says 'penny' instead of 'cent'? Stop being so damned anal.

 

The reason I was surprised by the College Board penny thing is because they are usually EXTREMELY anal about how they word things so they don't get sued or have to drop a test question due to ambiguity or whatever. Usually they are very picky about their semantics down to the word. If they would've said "cents, commonly called pennies" and then keep calling them pennies from that point on that would've eliminated any ambiguity.

 

We're explaining, not complaining. I know the words rhyme, they're hard to differentiate.

 

Who would sue for the use of the word penny? Really now!

 

German measles or rubella? Can someone tell me which term is correct?