Q for the HS veterans: What if you had no PAF?

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

Spoiler

Slumdog Syndicated: Cab Fare Home

[MarleysGh0st]

I wonder if Jamal Malik will drop by to tell us about his PAF call.

No, but in the alternate universe without the PAF on the Indian version of WWTBAM, he had lots of fun chatting with Schmoopie.

[frogman042]

I wonder if Jamal Malik will drop by to tell us about his PAF call.

Here's a compromise - you get the PAF - but only if you agree to waterboarding and electrods attached to your body prior to its usage.

[Weyoun]

Still SOL.

[Bob78164]

Still SOL.

Even if your expert were, say, Florence Henderson? --Bob

[secondchance]

Sure....thinking back eight and a half years....

My $4,000 question:
Acetylene is a substance commonly used in which of the following processes?
A. Refrigeration
B. Cooking
C. Cleaning
D. Welding

I would have asked the expert on the same question. Considering my PaF was Weyoun (Steve Perry), I doubt the expert would have helped me like he did. Of Course, in retrospect my question was easy. Ironically, now I teach my students about Acetylene (HC2H) and Datum every semester in Science class. My post-Millionaire college education would have helped me pre-Millionaire.

Don't you love irony?

Yep. The week after my taping, what appears in my e-mail but an ad from Barnes & Noble touting JD Robb's latest "In Death" novel. God having one last laugh at my expense.

So, you got a problem with that?

Now that's irony, indeed. Or... is it possible that some stealthy reverse-search engine-type-thingy noticed you'd been writing about "in death" recently and zeroed in on you? (I'm obviously not a big believer in coincidence lately... lol)

btw... Found It!

[TheConfessor]

I do have a question, of the 12 millionaires (not counting the ToT), did anyone of them get their because their PAF googled the answer? Does anyone either know for certain, or can guess based on how the PAF went?

Of those twelve, only three had a PAF available on the final question. (I realize your question may be broader in asking about their use of PAF, regardless of when in the stack they used it.)

John Carpenter famously called his father and then didn't really ask him the question.

Bob House called a fellow teacher about which scientist didn't have an element on the Periodic Table named after him. It seemed there were having a genuine discussion and there's no real suggestion of Googling.

David Goodman called a group of people in response to the question about the country of origin of Paddington Bear. There was group think going on there but I don't know whether anyone Googled.

I don't think anyone would ever forget John Carpenter's call (my niece asked me to do a John Carpenter if I got to the million $ question, even if I didn't need it). Thanks for the background. Actually, I'm asking a more broader question. There have been 12 millionaire's not all of them used the PAF on the last question - so my question is, if they used a PAF earlier on the stack and that PAF used google, that would qualify as a millionaire winning in part because of google (or maybe only because google was available). So has their been a millionaire that wouldn't have been one if it wasn't for google - or were all of the PFs on for these 12 google free?

My PAF would have tried to Google if necessary, but didn't need to, so didn't Google.

[lv42day]

To answer the the title question. My phone a friend did not give an answer, so with that consideration alone, I would have done about the same. I think whatever "expert" might have known the answer to the question I PAF'd with, as it was pop culturish. I probably might have chosen the correct two with this question on a double dip. I 50/50'd it and guessed the correct one. No, but what might have nailed me was the clock. I don't know if I would have gotten far at all with those kind of time restrictions.

[earendel]

It's hard to say how the PAF affected my game. FTR I used the PAF on my $64K question:

Which of the following presidents attended college?
A - George Washington
B - Thomas Jefferson
C - Grover Cleveland
D - Harry Truman

This was back in the day before Google was popular and none of the people on my PAF list were near a computer. I had an idea of the answer but called my friend Jim. He gave me the right answer, and just after I gave my final answer the horn sounded. Had I not had the PAF, I might have walked away at this point. On the next show I was "one and done" as the $125K question came up:

The technical term for the process that causes trees to lose their leaves in the fall is called what?
A - abscission
B - transpiration
C - deracination
D - sublimation

Since I had my 50/50, I used it. I always used to wonder what would have happened if I hadn't used PAF on the previous question (one of my PAFs was a science teacher and at the viewing party he knew the answer immediately). But if PAF hadn't existed I'd have done just what I did IRL - use the 50/50 and pick the wrong answer, dropping back to $32K. Given the experts I've seen I don't think any of them could have helped with either of the questions. I might have walked away with $64K instead of $32K.

[ShamelessWeasel]

The simple answer is that I would have not answered the 250K question and gone home with 125. RobertL was an awesome google PAF and the question was tailored made for google PAF.

Here is my 250K question
$250K Best-selling author David Cornwell writes under what pseudonym?
a. Robert Ludlum b. John le Carré
c. Elmore Leonard d. Mickey Spillane (answer B)

Thinking about it a little differently, I still may have got to 250K depending on the expert. I used ATA and 50/50 on the following question

$64K In order to form a musical chord, what is the minimum number of tones that must be played together?
a. Two b. Four
c. Five d. Three

ATA: A-23% B-33% C-7% D-37%
50/50: leaves answers A and D. (Answer D)


Depending on the expert I may have been able to get away with just using ATE here. If so having ATA and 50/50 or DD may have been enough for 250K. It all depends on how I felt at the time. I probably still would have walked with 125 but you never know.

The clock would not have been a problem for me. I knew the answer to every question except 64 & 250 (and 500 of course) beofre Regis stopped reading. I deliberately slowed down and confirmed I was comfortable with my answer but did not change it at all.