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Posts tagged with probability

What are the Odds?

June5
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Girolamo Cardano

December21

‘Girolamo’ is not a very popular name for anyone, but Girolamo Cardano was a famous mathematician who lived from 1501-1576. He was a doctor and the author of 131 books. He was also a compulsive gambler. It was this gambling habit that led him to the first mathematical analysis of probability. He realised he could win […]

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White Island volcano erupts: reports of injuries in NZ

December9

News Flash: “An eruption is currently happening at White Island. Unconfirmed reports said up to 19 people were on or near the island at the time of the eruption and a rescue helicopter is on the way. Some of the people on the island have critical injuries.” Source: NZ Herald. So, this begs the mathematical question – […]

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Probability – flip a coin for $1b

April30

Here is another chance to look at probability, and one that you might be allowed to play in class! Flip a coin continuously until a tail appears for the first time. If this doesn’t happen until the 20th (or later) flip, you win $1 billion. If the first tail appears before the 20th flip, you […]

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Guilty or innocent? Math in the Courtroom Part II

April29

In 2003, a Dutch nurse named Lucia de Berk was accused of murdering several patients. She was sent to prison for six years in before her conviction was overturned in 2010. The reason for the overturning? The prosecutor and the judges behind the conviction could not do math correctly. The grade 11 class delved deep […]

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Probability to the Defense

April28

So, an appeal was made to the Supreme Court, when it was overturned on the basis of probability arguments. The defense attorney argued that 1/12,000,000 was not the relevant probability (see previous post). In a city the size of Los Angeles, with maybe 2,000,000 couples, the probability was not that small, he argued, that there […]

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Probabilities and Courtroom Drama

April26

In 1964 a Los Angeles blond woman with a ponytail snatched a purse from another woman. The thief was spotted entering a yellow car driven by a black man with a beard and a mustache. The police eventually found a blond woman with a ponytail who regularly associated with a bearded and mustachioed black man […]

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DNA Revisited – Mathematical Proof of Divinity?

March1

A single cell and the DNA that causes it to function is millions of times more intricate than anything man has created. So, is it mathematically possible for us to not be created by a higher power? For illustration purposes, let’s take a 200 page book. Could the cover, the paper, the ink and the […]

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Math Wizz used Probability to Beat Lotto

December31

Romanian economist Stefan Mandel was struggling to make ends meet. So he came up with an unlikely solution — winning the lottery. But while most people who dream of scooping the jackpot rely on dumb luck, Mandel had other ideas. Mandel spent his spare time poring over probability papers penned by mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci — […]

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The Math of Christmas

December24

In the Bible there are some 300 prophecies concerning the arrival and life of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Here are 8 of those 300 prophecies and the mathematical probability that they happened: (1) The Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:1; Luke 2:4-6) (2) The Messiah will be a descendant of Jacob. […]

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Post Support

Largest number between o and 1 million which does not contain the ‘n’ is 88

 

Rotation SAT Problem: Answer: 4 (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUHkTs-Ipfg)

 

Which number has its letters in alphabetical order? Answer: F O R T Y

Hidden Rabbit? Clue: check the trees

How long for the stadium to fill? 45 minutes.

Where are you? the North Pole

Prize Object Puzzle: If Sue does not know where the prize is in the first question, it can’t be under the square. She must have been told it is under another shape. Apply this same logic to Colin. It is then obvious that the prize cannot be under a yellow object. That helps Sue eliminate her yellow shapes. Got the idea?

Algebra Puzzle: Answer = 1

Popular Math Problems Answers: 1, 1

Number of tabs? According to Lifehacker, the ideal number of tabs you should have open is nine. Yes, a single digit. To some, this is like playing a piano and only using a fraction of the notes!

Worst Graph? Where to start. What a visual mess and even some of the lines merge and are impossible to follow. A graph is a visual display of data, with the goal to identify trends or patterns. This is a spider’s web of information which fails to show a clear pattern at all. Solution? Well, different colors would help, or why not group in two or three graphs where trends are similar?

Number of different nets to make a cube is eleven – see this link

Homework Puzzle; The total value of the counters is 486, so halve this to get 243. Now, arrange the counters to equal this amount twice.

The graph on the left (Coronavirus) is for a time period of 30 days, while the one on the right (SARS) is for 8 months! Very poor graphical comparison and hardly relevant, unless it is attempting to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus?

10 x 9 x 8 + (7 + 6) x 5 x 4 x (3 + 2) x 1 = 2020

NCEA Level 2 Algebra Problem. Using the information given, the shaded area = 9, that is:
y(y-8) = 9 –> y.y – 8y – 9 =0
–> (y-9)(y+1) = 0, therefore y = 9 (can’t have a distance of – 1 for the other solution for y)
Using the top and bottom of the rectangle,
x = (y-8)(y+2) = (9-8)(9+2) = 11
but, the left side = (x-4) = 11-4 = 7, but rhs = y+? = 9+?, which is greater than the value of the opp. side??
[I think that the left had side was a mistake and should have read (x+4)?]

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