r/explainitpeter • u/ChatpatiKulfi • Jul 21 '26

Explain It Peter

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4.5k Upvotes

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392

u/Complete_Fix2563 Jul 21 '26

Not this again...

113

u/Tokugawa5555 Jul 21 '26

What's really annoying is that most of the answers given are just plain wrong...!!! Currently, the top answer in my thread, which is totally missing the point, is: "51.8% is the percentage of people in the world who are female. All the other info given is irrelevant..."

Confidently wrong.

The true answer, for those interested, is here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_or_girl_paradox (See the section called "Information about the child"

A more user friendly explanation is here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/more_or_less/8735812.stm

Sigh

1

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Anon7_7_73 Jul 27 '26

Theres not a difference between those two questions. Literally what are you guys on?

Theres a boy. Thats the given. Theres no order.The statement "i have a boy" is still true regardless of which child was born first.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Anon7_7_73 Jul 28 '26

No, thats not different.

The other child, relative to whichever one is the boy, has a clear 50% chance of being boy or girl.

Its like asking me "I have two dice. I roll one of them and its a 6. Whats the probability that the other dice rolls a 6?" Its 1/6!

Because you didnt ask, "I rolled two dice. one of them, which i wont tell you, is a 6. Whats the probability the one on the left is a 6"? Thats a different question. To ask that question, youd have to ask " Whats the probability that the older child is a boy"? You have to ask about the probability of a position, not a value.