In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Donald Burrill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>"The story is about six students who ... The instructor ... tells them
>to report the next day for an exam with only one question. If they all
>get it right they all pass. They were seated at corners of the room and
>could not communicate."
The story only required that they agree, not that they come
up with an answer set by the teacher.
>Must have been an interesting room, with six corners :)
>"The one question was, "Which tire?" I remember that the likelihood of
>all four pickng the same tire was quite small, but I forgot how to
>calculate it explicitly."
>Assuming an ordinary vehicle with 4 tires, and that the students'
>responses are independent, (1/4)^6 = 1/4096.
I suggest that it is (1/4)^5 = 1/1024.
>"I would particularly appreciate a general solution (N students, M
>tires)."
>For a room with N corners?
>The generalization ought to be obvious.
>On 12 Oct 2001, Dubinse wrote:
<> I had promised a colleague a story that illustrates probability and
<> now I forgot how to solve it formally. The story is about six
<> students who go off on a trip and get drunk the weekend before
<> their statistics final. They return a few days late and beg for a
<> second chance to take the final exam. They tell a story about how
<> they were caught in a storm and their car blew a tire and ended up
<> in a ditch and they needed brief hospitalization etc. The instructor
<> seems very easy going about the whole thing and tells them to report
<> the next day for an exam with only one question. If they all get it
<> right they all pass. They were seated at corners of the room and could
<> not communicate. The one question was, "Which tire?" I remember that
<> the likelihood of all four pickng the same tire was quite small, but I
<> forgot how to calculate it explicitly (except for listing all the
<> possible outcomes).
--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558
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