This morning after a fast-paced introduction to supernova neutrino theory (and an admittedly rather optimistic plan for studying neutrino oscillations), a discussion broke out at lunch break about soft drinks. Challenge and response; and a modified "Pepsi challenge" ensued. Greg prepared 8 cups of random beverage (he rejected my suggestion to mix a few) and those who claimed to be able to tell the difference poured samples, and guessed. 4/8, 4/8 and 3/8 correct. Heh.
A rematch at 4:00 attracted more grad students and some secretaries, and we histogrammed the results, which turned out to be surprisingly flat, suggesting that perhaps two distributions were represented: those who could tell the difference but weren't always calibrated correctly, and those who couldn't tell the difference. (A secretary scored 8/8 and a grad student 1/8.) A large group said that you could tell the difference for the first swig, but after that your taste buds were a little shocked by the acid and one was like the other.
Doesn't your office spend free time analyzing experiments?
2 comments:
You can really torque people off with blind taste tests for wine. Only 25% of Frenchman can tell good from bad. Interestingly, though, there is that 25% - it's not a different 1 in 4 each time.
Yes, some people have either born or trained palettes. Everything tastes like chicken: but with subtle shadings that I sometimes almost think I can remember.
(Mark kept complaining that the test should have had reference samples.)
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