Jar Jar’s Ruination Rule

At a glance

• Part 1: The one-tenth thresholds, in table order, are 12 minutes, 14 minutes, 13 minutes, and 12 minutes.
• Part 2: Only The Phantom Menace is ruined under the “more than” rule, so the count is 1 movie.
• Part 3: Attack of the Clones changes classification. Under the “at least” rule, 2 movies count as ruined.

Key idea: the boundary matters

One tenth of a runtime is the runtime divided into 10 equal groups. Divide each runtime by 10 to find the droid’s threshold.

The phrases in the two rules treat the boundary differently:

• More than one tenth does not include a screen time exactly equal to one tenth.
• At least one tenth does include a screen time exactly equal to one tenth.

1. Find the four thresholds

The four threshold times are 12, 14, 13, and 12 minutes, in table order.

2. Apply “more than one tenth”

Compare each made-up Jar Jar time with its movie’s threshold.

• The Phantom Menace: 13 >12, so it counts as ruined.
• Attack of the Clones: 14 =14, so it does not count. Equal is not more than.
• Revenge of the Sith: 8 <13, so it does not count.
• A New Hope: 0 <12, so it does not count.

Exactly 1 movie, The Phantom Menace, is ruined under the original rule.

3. Change the rule to “at least one tenth”

The only movie sitting exactly on its threshold is Attack of the Clones: its made-up Jar Jar time is 14 minutes, and one tenth of its 140-minute runtime is also 14 minutes.

The words at least include equality, so Attack of the Clones now joins The Phantom Menace. The new count is 2 movies.

Check

Under the first rule, the four comparisons are greater than, equal to, less than, and less than. Only the greater-than case counts, giving 1.

Under the changed rule, both the greater-than and equal-to cases count, giving 2. No other classification changes because 8 is still below 13 and 0 is still below 12.

Completeness

The table contains exactly four movies, and the comparison above checks all four rows. Their relationships to the boundary are one greater-than case, one equal case, and two less-than cases. Therefore no movie has been omitted from either count.