Sandbox: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Line 3: | Line 3: | ||
by Gary Antonik, Numberplay blog, ''New York Times'', 17 March 2014 | by Gary Antonik, Numberplay blog, ''New York Times'', 17 March 2014 | ||
The post begins with this simple problem: | The post begins with this simple problem, posed by Daniel Finkel: | ||
<blockquote> | <blockquote> | ||
Consider this simple game: flip a fair coin twice. You win if you get two heads, and lose otherwise. It’s not hard to calculate that the chances of winning are 1/4… . Your challenge is to design a game, using only a fair coin, that you have a 1/3 chance of winning. | Consider this simple game: flip a fair coin twice. You win if you get two heads, and lose otherwise. It’s not hard to calculate that the chances of winning are 1/4… . Your challenge is to design a game, using only a fair coin, that you have a 1/3 chance of winning. | ||
Revision as of 01:29, 7 April 2014
A coin puzzle
A coin problem
by Gary Antonik, Numberplay blog, New York Times, 17 March 2014
The post begins with this simple problem, posed by Daniel Finkel:
Consider this simple game: flip a fair coin twice. You win if you get two heads, and lose otherwise. It’s not hard to calculate that the chances of winning are 1/4… . Your challenge is to design a game, using only a fair coin, that you have a 1/3 chance of winning.
Continues "And here is my recipe for getting the most out of this problem: if you can solve it, do not stop with one answer. Rather, see how many answers you can come up with. I’ve posed this problem to many people, and I continue to hear novel solutions."
Submitted by Bill Peterson