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cthulu2016

(10,960 posts)

6. Try it with a coin

Reply to Buzz Clik (Reply #4)

Sat Jan 12, 2013, 03:01 PM

Jan 2013

Make heads and tails male and female.

It is counter-intuitive, but it works out exactly 50-50 males and females.

Hence the headline "fun with math"

It's a cool thing about probabilities.

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Fun with Math [View all] cthulu2016 Jan 2013 OP

... Robb Jan 2013 #1

Probability Publiuus Jan 2013 #2

Yes, I should have speciffied a hypothetical 50-50 cthulu2016 Jan 2013 #3

Check out the effect on populations I worked out in #10 with non 50/50 distributions though Recursion Jan 2013 #12

Your post is interesting. See my reply cthulu2016 Jan 2013 #16

There would be more females. Buzz Clik Jan 2013 #4

Try it with a coin cthulu2016 Jan 2013 #6

Yeah, I actually thought about AFTER I posted, and I agree. Buzz Clik Jan 2013 #8

It's the integral of a poisson process Recursion Jan 2013 #5

Your recollection is correct cthulu2016 Jan 2013 #7

Outcomes enumerated are... Speck Tater Jan 2013 #9

Of course, there is another constraint in the problem as posed... DreamGypsy Jan 2013 #21

I also didn't account for twins and triplets... etc. Speck Tater Jan 2013 #23

So, the generalized answer, given the unequal birth rates we observe, plus the effect on population Recursion Jan 2013 #10

Interestingly... Fisher's law is usually expressed wrong cthulu2016 Jan 2013 #14

then for 100 couples hfojvt Jan 2013 #20

China's preference of male babies and one child policy has skewed the ratio... Agnosticsherbet Jan 2013 #11

Without selective abortion, the chances of each birth are still 50:50 muriel_volestrangler Jan 2013 #13

Even without gender-selective abortion ... surrealAmerican Jan 2013 #15

That is an excellent point cthulu2016 Jan 2013 #17

Rosendcrantz and Guildenstern are dead. DreamGypsy Jan 2013 #18

Done that way: 100% chance of having a son, 50% chance of having a daughter bhikkhu Jan 2013 #19

You started out very well, but cthulu2016 Jan 2013 #22

Of course... bhikkhu Jan 2013 #24