Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/3/84; site aluxe.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!aluxp!aluxe!2141smh From: 2141smh@aluxe.UUCP (henning) Newsgroups: net.misc Subject: Re: Trivial Pursuit Wrong? (odds are..) Message-ID: <447@aluxe.UUCP> Date: Sat, 13-Oct-84 08:15:28 EDT Article-I.D.: aluxe.447 Posted: Sat Oct 13 08:15:28 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 14-Oct-84 07:01:53 EDT References: <391@amd.UUCP> <3630@ut-sally.UUCP> <751@milo.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Allentown, PA Lines: 16 **** **** From the keys of Steve Henning, AT&T Bell Labs, Reading, PA aluxe!2141smh > My favorite "error" is the answer to "what are the odds of drawing > an Ace from a full deck of cards?" The answer given is 12 to 1. Try convincing > a non-technical type that the game is wrong! ("Look, if you can't play the > game by the rules, let's not play at all.") From Freund's "Modern Elementary Statistics", 3rd edition, Page 102: "If the probability of an event is 3/4, we say the adds are 3 to 1 in its favor; if the probability of an event is 0.95, we say that the adds are 19 to 1 in its favor; and if the probability of an event is 0.10, we say that the odds are 9 to 1 against it. Generally speaking the odds for the occurrence of an event are given by the ratio of the probability that the event will occur to the probability that it will not occur." Thus if the odds are 5 to 1 against and you bet $2 for, then you win $10.