I used to have Math as a regular segment and it has fallen by the way side but I just saw an article on Scientific America that sparked my interest again so here is the math question:
“In the ancient society of Machudo, families wanted no more than three kids. Their eldest son had a chance of becoming king, so they would stop having children after they had their first boy. A family that had three children or had a boy was said to be "complete."
Assume boys and girls had an equal probability of being born. (In reality, boys are slightly more likely, but it's undignified for puzzle masters to deal with slight exceptions to basic rules.)
Warm-up: What fraction of complete families would have a boy?”
If someone can give me the right answer I’ll update this post with the remaining 5 problems!!
Trust me…this is fun!!
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1 comments to "Math"
Unknown says:
I'm tempted to do a Google search, but I'll just guess.
Obviously, it has to be at least a 50% or greater, and greater than 50% makes a lot more sense to me.
So, I figure that there's a 50% chance of a boy on the first try, a 25% chance of having a boy on the 2nd try (.5 * .5), and a 12.5% chance of having a boy on the 3rd try (.5 * .5 * .5).
Therefore, 87.5% of complete families (.5 + .25 + .125) should have a boy, or... as a fraction... 7/8ths of all families.