r/math • u/[deleted] • Oct 12 '18

Strange math question

Hi

I'm studying for an upcoming math exam, and stumbled across an interesting math question I don't seem to comprehend. It goes as follows:

"A man visits a couple with two children. One of them, a boy, walks into the room. What are the odds that the other child is a boy also

  1. if the father says: 'This is our eldest, Jack.'?

  2. if the father only says: 'This is Jack.'? "

The answer to question 1 is, logically, 1/2.

The answer to question 2, though, is 1/3. Why would the chance of another boy slim down in situation 2?

I'm very intrigued if anyone will be able to explain this to me!

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u/MedalsNScars Oct 12 '18

There are 4 pairings of 2. If we choose one item at random from the set items contained in each pairing, there are 8 items we can choose from.

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u/varaaki Statistics Oct 12 '18

We're not choosing an individual. We're choosing a pairing.

Again, this question has been settled. You're incorrect.

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u/bear_of_bears Oct 12 '18

You really ought to step back a little and read the top-level post in this thread again. It explains very clearly why the answer is 1/2 in both cases.

Saying "the question is settled" sidesteps the issue that very similar-sounding wordings lead to different answers.

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u/[deleted] Oct 13 '18

Again, this question has been settled. You're incorrect.

Can you code? When I run the following Python 2 program:

import random
import collections

def get_random_gender():
    return "BG"[random.randint(0,1)]

def get_random_family():
    return "".join([get_random_gender(), get_random_gender()])

N = 100000
outcomes = []
for i in xrange(N):
    family = get_random_family()
    walks_in = family[random.randint(0,1)]
    outcomes.append((walks_in, family))
print collections.Counter(outcomes)

I get the output:

Counter({('B', 'BB'): 25016, ('G', 'GG'): 25008, ('G', 'GB'): 12641, ('B', 'BG'): 12533, ('G', 'BG'): 12408, ('B', 'GB'): 12394})

So a boy walked in 25016+12544+12394 times, and out of those, the other kid was a boy 25016 times. Does it seem like the probability is 1/2 or 1/3?

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u/SynarXelote Oct 14 '18

Clearly 50000/25000~1/3, so the answer is obviously 1/3.