Plan from the supplied facts
Original discovery has eight possible design hypotheses. Question Q1 deterministically partitions them into groups of four/four; Q2 partitions seven/one. Both cost one hour. The stated objective is to minimise the worst number still possible after an answer, with no probabilities supplied.
| Question | Answer-group sizes | Worst remaining | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 4 / 4 | 4 | 1 |
| Q2 | 7 / 1 | 7 | 1 |
| No question | 8 | 8 | 0 |
Work through the choice
Q2 can occasionally isolate one hypothesis, but its worst branch leaves seven. The supplied objective prefers Q1’s guaranteed reduction to at most four.
Which one-hour question is preferred under the stated objective?
Show the worked answer
Q1: maximum remaining group size four versus seven for Q2. No expected-information calculation is possible without additional weighting.
Material to use in your plan
List the current hypotheses, each question’s answer groups, effort and largest remaining group. Choose against the declared objective, not how interesting one possible answer sounds.