If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.
The test implies that a person can identify an unknown subject by observing that subject’s habitual characteristics. It is sometimes used to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be.
Bedevere : There are ways of telling whether she is a witch!
Villagers : Are there? What? Tell us, then! Tell us!
Bedevere : Tell me. What do you do with witches?
Villagers : Burn! Burn! You burn them! Burn!
Bedevere : And what do you burn apart from witches?
Villagers : More witches! Wood!
Bedevere : So, why do witches burn?
Villager : 'Cos they’re made of wood?
Bedevere : Good! … So; how do we tell if she is made of wood?
Villager : Build a bridge out of 'er!
Bedevere : Ah, but can you not also make bridges out of stone?
Villagers : Oh yeah.
Bedevere : Does wood sink in water?
Villagers : No, it floats! Throw her into the pond! Yaa!
Bedevere : What also floats in water?
Villagers : Bread! Apples! Very small rocks? Cider! Gra-Gravy! Cherries! Mud! Churches? Churches! Lead! Lead!
King Arthur : A duck!
Villagers : Ooh!
Bedevere : Exactly. So, logically…
Villager : If she weighs the same as a duck, she’s made of wood…
Bedevere : And therefore…
Villager A witch!
Similarly, the term elephant test refers to situations in which an idea or thing, “is hard to describe, but instantly recognizable when spotted”
Now, who am I, and why am I here? The answer, my dear, I’m afraid, you’ll fear. Try it again, one more time, do it or else, you will be mine. Quack quack exclaimed the mother duck to her children
