People commonly float on top of swimming pools.
Is it unique?
- Celalta: Is it alive? No
- Celalta: Is it larger than a breadbox? Yes
- soyleche: is it man-made? Yes
- soyleche: does it use electricity? No
- twig: Is it a common household item? No
- JSM: Can a person get inside it? Yes
- YT: Is it often made of wood? No
- Celalta: Do people commonly go/get inside it? Yes
- soyleche: Is it bigger than a house (2000 sq ft)? No
- Lucy: Do people commonly get on top of it? No
- twig: Is it unique? No
Does it typically stay in one place?
To be fair, those things were all ruled out by the previous question as they’re all bigger than a house. I mean, maybe not a swing set you’d find in someone’s back yard (which would be common), but the rest of them.
The opposite of common is uncommon. It would not be uncommon to find a tent in someone’s house. If you saw one packed up in your neighbor’s basement when you were having a pre- or post-Covid visit you wouldn’t think “how unusual!”
I don’t think that an item would need to exist in 50% of households to be considered common.
But that’s me and I’m not the question-answerer this go-around. 
Yeah, treehouse and play structure would have fit, but it wasn’t a good question given the size constraint.
But alas you are not answering this question. 
For clarification on how I answered the questions (and how I planned to answer them prior to any questions being asked or before I chose an item):
- “Is xxxxx a common [household / bathroom / zoo / etc] item”…My translation would have been “Would this item be found in something like a third or more of [households / etc]” (that third-or-more sounds like a more stringent requirement than some had in mind)
- “Is the item commonly found in xxxxxx” …My translation would have been “GIVEN THAT THIS ITEM IS BEING CONSIDERED, would I expect to find it in xxxxxx”. So even if only 5% of [households] had one, if all the owners kept them in their household, this would be a solid yes.
The latest question, “Does it typically stay in one place”, adds a different type of ambiguity that I’d thought about before starting. I’d answer a question like that as yes if EITHER the object was frequently on the move (like the school bus) OR if the object’s purpose required it to be moved (e.g. a motorcycle, which might only be in motion for 2 hours a week).
Not trying to drop huge hints with this. I just found it a bit amusing that there was back and forth on how “common” might be an easily confusing question, immediately followed by asking what something “typically” does.
Not sure why that bulleted like that. I still don’t quite get all the formatting here. [/old_man_complaint]
edit: apparently, a dash (on a new line) followed by a space turns into a bullet, but a dash without a space does not. maybe
And after 3 edits, I finally get the formatting combo I was looking for 
[/really_old_man_complaint]
- Celalta: Is it alive? No
- Celalta: Is it larger than a breadbox? Yes
- soyleche: is it man-made? Yes
- soyleche: does it use electricity? No
- twig: Is it a common household item? No
- JSM: Can a person get inside it? Yes
- YT: Is it often made of wood? No
- Celalta: Do people commonly go/get inside it? Yes
- soyleche: Is it bigger than a house (2000 sq ft)? No
- Lucy: Do people commonly get on top of it? No
- twig: Is it unique? No
- twig: Does it typically stay in one place? No
Thinking about asking if it’s a vehicle. Or if it’s made of metal. Thoughts?
vehicle uses electricity
probably a tent
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Could be some sort of a boat - a fishing boat or something not typically made of wood. That idea has problems with #10 though…
Is it commonly collapsible?
- Celalta: Is it alive? No
- Celalta: Is it larger than a breadbox? Yes
- soyleche: is it man-made? Yes
- soyleche: does it use electricity? No
- twig: Is it a common household item? No
- JSM: Can a person get inside it? Yes
- YT: Is it often made of wood? No
- Celalta: Do people commonly go/get inside it? Yes
- soyleche: Is it bigger than a house (2000 sq ft)? No
- Lucy: Do people commonly get on top of it? No
- twig: Is it unique? No
- twig: Does it typically stay in one place? No
- JSM: Is it commonly collapsible? Yes
Is it a tent
- Celalta: Is it alive? No
- Celalta: Is it larger than a breadbox? Yes
- soyleche: is it man-made? Yes
- soyleche: does it use electricity? No
- twig: Is it a common household item? No
- JSM: Can a person get inside it? Yes
- YT: Is it often made of wood? No
- Celalta: Do people commonly go/get inside it? Yes
- soyleche: Is it bigger than a house (2000 sq ft)? No
- Lucy: Do people commonly get on top of it? No
- twig: Is it unique? No
- twig: Does it typically stay in one place? No
- JSM: Is it commonly collapsible? Yes
- Is it a tent? YES
Nicely done, team!
I’ll be heading off camping with our Scout group this weekend, so camping and tents were on my brain (though we’re planning to build our own natural shelters, so the tents will just be a backup plan).
I felt pretty good about most of the responses. I’d done a bit of research ahead of time, and 13% of families had gone camping in the past year. Considering some infrequent campers borrow gear, I extrapolated that relatively few households actually had camping gear/tents.
I did feel the need the over-explain on the “stay in one place”, based on how a reasonable person would interpret yes/no answers, even though a tent spends almost all of its life sitting on a shelf.
1 Like
We went camping all the time when I was younger, but most of my friends didn’t. My kids have never been. Also, when I started looking at rectifying the lack of camping for my kids, holy crud is camping gear expensive! Hence I wasn’t sure of the commonness. Hope you and your Scout group have a good time 
1 Like
I’m guessing a LOT of tent owners infrequently camp as well. As in way less than once a year.
As an example, I owned a tent for 20 years and actually went camping in it twice during that time. I know tons of people who own tents and almost never use them.
I’d have extrapolated in the other direction!