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S2000magician![]() Inner circle Yorba Linda, CA 3469 Posts ![]() |
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On Apr 12, 2019, yachanin wrote: Absolutely true. If you take a look at the wikipedia link that tommy posted above, you'll see that there's a fair amount of discussion about the proper formulation of the question. As I'm very familiar with the problem, I know that your interpretation is not what the problem solver intended. I'm not saying that your interpretation is unreasonable by any means; only that that's not what was intended. |
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yachanin![]() Inner circle Cleveland, OH 2079 Posts ![]() |
Hi $2000magician,
It’s not the first time I’ve interpreted things differently than others ![]() ![]() Regards, Steve
"Impossible? Your audience will think so..." TM
Thought Association Card Triangulation Word Search Detective Christmas Eve Sights - Start A Family Tradition |
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S2000magician![]() Inner circle Yorba Linda, CA 3469 Posts ![]() |
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On Apr 12, 2019, yachanin wrote: Such as my username. It's S2000 (as in Honda's incredible roadster), not $2000. ![]() |
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yachanin![]() Inner circle Cleveland, OH 2079 Posts ![]() |
LOL! Sorry about that (and I got it right the first time, but thought I had made a mistake). Maybe it's time for new glasses
![]() Regards, Steve
"Impossible? Your audience will think so..." TM
Thought Association Card Triangulation Word Search Detective Christmas Eve Sights - Start A Family Tradition |
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S2000magician![]() Inner circle Yorba Linda, CA 3469 Posts ![]() |
Quote:
On Apr 12, 2019, yachanin wrote: Then you know whether it's the older penny (the wheat penny) or the younger penny (the Lincoln Memorial penny). See: you're using older and younger even with your pennies. |
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yachanin![]() Inner circle Cleveland, OH 2079 Posts ![]() |
There probably aren't many on this forum that remember wheat pennies
![]() Regards, Steve
"Impossible? Your audience will think so..." TM
Thought Association Card Triangulation Word Search Detective Christmas Eve Sights - Start A Family Tradition |
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tommy![]() Eternal Order Devil’s Island 16113 Posts ![]() |
Never mind pennies, I remember farthings.
If there is a single truth about Magic, it is that nothing on earth so efficiently evades it.
Tommy |
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S2000magician![]() Inner circle Yorba Linda, CA 3469 Posts ![]() |
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On Apr 15, 2019, tommy wrote: I remember penny-farthings. I own one. |
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landmark![]() Inner circle within a triangle 5008 Posts ![]() |
I remember wampum and trading five Eddie Kranepools for one Micky Mantle.
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
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tommy![]() Eternal Order Devil’s Island 16113 Posts ![]() |
Is the small wheel a 1/4 of the big wheel?
If there is a single truth about Magic, it is that nothing on earth so efficiently evades it.
Tommy |
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S2000magician![]() Inner circle Yorba Linda, CA 3469 Posts ![]() |
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On Apr 15, 2019, tommy wrote: Even smaller. I'll measure them and get back to you with a concrete answer. |
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S2000magician![]() Inner circle Yorba Linda, CA 3469 Posts ![]() |
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On Apr 15, 2019, tommy wrote: About ⅓ the diameter, so 1/9 the area (when viewed sideways). |
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tommy![]() Eternal Order Devil’s Island 16113 Posts ![]() |
A farthing was a ¼ of a penny in value - from "fourthing". The pre-decimalisation British system of coinage was introduced by King Henry II. It was based on the troy system of weighing precious metals. The penny was literally one pennyweight of silver. A pound sterling thus weighed 240 pennyweights, or a pound of sterling silver.
If there is a single truth about Magic, it is that nothing on earth so efficiently evades it.
Tommy |
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landmark![]() Inner circle within a triangle 5008 Posts ![]() |
From what I've looked at on Wikipedia, the most recent farthing had a diameter of 20mm and the quarter farthing 13.5 mm. So the area would be about 45% of the larger. The old farthings were as large as 25mm in diameter, which works out to about 29%.
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
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MobilityBundle![]() Regular user Las Vegas/Boston 120 Posts ![]() |
There's nothing like a probability paradox to get me out of a many-years-long spell away from the forum...
Here's a Jedi Grandmaster level probability puzzle: Suppose I have an everywhere-nonzero probability distribution on the real number line. If you don't know what that means, in layman's terms it means that I have some probabilistic process or method to generate a random number. It can potentially generate ANY number. Moreover, if you pick any range of numbers, whether the range is large or small, there's a nonzero probability that you can generate a number inside that range. (It may not be obvious, but such things exist.) But importantly, you don't know anything else about the distribution. You don't know its mean (or if it even has a mean), you don't know if it has any symmetries, you don't know ANYTHING besides the fact that it's everywhere-nonzero. Then we play a game: I use that secret distribution to generate two distinct numbers, but I don't tell you either number. I then flip a fair coin to decide which of the two numbers to show you. Upon showing you the number, you're allowed to say "larger" or "smaller." If in fact the number I showed you was larger than the other number (that I didn't show you), you win if you said "larger" and lose if you said "smaller." Similarly, if the number I showed you was smaller than the other number, you win if you said "smaller" and lose if you said "larger." Obviously, you can't do this with 100% success. That's not the question. The question is whether you can come up with a strategy that's better than merely guessing at random. For example, one strategy might be to always answer that the number is the larger number. But you'd only be right 50% of the time. Is there a strategy that provides a better than 50% success rate? |
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landmark![]() Inner circle within a triangle 5008 Posts ![]() |
Yes.
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
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MobilityBundle![]() Regular user Las Vegas/Boston 120 Posts ![]() |
Maybe I should have been more clear: if so, what is one such strategy? If not, why not?
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Steven Keyl![]() Inner circle Washington, D.C. 2557 Posts ![]() |
Create a random number along the distribution. That will be your comparison value. When you turn over one of the random numbers, you will compare it to your random number. If it is higher, then you will pick "lower" and vice versa. This only gives you a slightly better than 50-50 chance of being right. The reason this works is because in the off chance that you are number lies between the two numbers the other person chose, you will always be right. Otherwise, it is still just a 50-50 chance.
Steven Keyl - The Human Whisperer!
Come visit Magic Book Report.com! "If you ever find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause, and reflect." --Mark Twain |
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tommy![]() Eternal Order Devil’s Island 16113 Posts ![]() |
We used to operate a scam on the bookies some time ago. One would place a complicated bet on a large number of football teams and under stake the number of combinations. The bookies would take the bet without checking the number of doubles, trebles, four timers and so on it should be. After they would just look at the winners and settle up. One would perhaps get say a grand bet on for 700. There was no guarantee of winning but it gave one the edge.
If there is a single truth about Magic, it is that nothing on earth so efficiently evades it.
Tommy |
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MobilityBundle![]() Regular user Las Vegas/Boston 120 Posts ![]() |
Well done, Steven, you are a Probability Jedi Grandmaster!
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