Math Is Fun Forum

New problem:

D wants to use his computer to flip a coin. So he puts a coin on top of the keyboard and goes to bed. The computer has trouble picking up the coin so D decides to build robotic arms for it. Someone tells D about programming and he take the 14 minute course in C++.After he graduates ( 3rd in his class ) he fires up his new C++ compiler and simulates a billion coin toss games. He walks up to our distinguished panel and says, " Do you guys know that the chance of getting 5 tails before you get 3 heads is 1 / 4?"

A says) Hmmm, I will have to think about that for a couple of years.

2 years later:

I got it: Let g be a group and G be a metric. If h(x) is meromorphic to... 5000 lines later. You are right D!

B says) After trying to read the 5000 lines, "That is not right. I do not know about that meromorphic jazz but the correct probability is 7 / 38."

C says) B, it is definitely 1 / 256. You just multiply ( 1 / 32 ) by ( 1 / 8 ).

D says) My code is correct. It is 1 / 4 =.25

E says) Are you sure of that 2, after all it is an approximation of an approximation. That 2 could be 1.98.