Thursday, July 12, 2007

Speaking of Statistics...

A.) I'm in love with my sweet, little (literally, he's on the short-side) Statistics professor. He's so adorable and nice and he tells funny stories in his sometimes-hard-to-understand (but he tries so hard!) accent.

B.) 3 days in... I love Stats! It's so logical and practical. Just yesterday a friend told me about a family that has 14 children--1 girl, 13 boys. We jokingly wondered what the chances of that happening are. Last night in class we learned about calculating probability: P(E)= n(E)/n(S). In this case, just 7% (or 1/14) chance. See? So logical! So practical!

C.) Here's a riddle for you: There is a family with 5 children. Half of them are boys. How can this be? CLARIFICATION: Half of the children (5 total) are boys.

12 comments:

Liz said...

Does the family have a dog? I bet the dog is a boy then too. Two boy children and one boy dog. :) Or, is it a sinlge parent home? That would make the numbers even.

Kellyry said...

I clarified the riddle a little more, Liz (see post). The parents aren't involved in the answer.

Kellyry said...

And no pets. :-)

Liz said...

There are 10 children total and you only mentioned the 5 boys?
Or, does one of the children have both boy parts and girl parts? (poor kid)

Have I mentioned how much I dislike riddles but can never rest until I have figured out the answer?

Kellyry said...

Haha! Not 10 children...Or hermaphrodites

There are a total of 5 children and half of those 5 children are boys.

DeniseMarie said...

No hermaphrodite children? Hmm.... Conjoined twins? Ok, I know the answer must be mathamatical, but I can't do math so my only chance is ridiculous guesses about birth defects.

Liz said...

This is driving me crazy!! Just tell me the answer already!!!

Kellyry said...

Riddles drive me crazy too, Liz, so I feel your pain. So I'll put you out of your misery...

As you know, one half of the 5 children are boys.

So are the other half.

All five children are boys.

Liz said...

See, this is why I hate riddles. The answers always make me feel so dumb! I should have been able to figure that out. SO Obvious!!!!

Kellyry said...

Exactly...Most riddles are classic "Of course!!" moments. Hate feeling stupid, but fun to be in the "know," eh?

DeniseMarie said...

Arg. I'm dumb, too.

So technically some of those kids could have been conjoined then, right?

Phoebe said...

David is going to love that you are loving Stats.
Too bad you aren't closer, he is an awesome teacher. Ask Robyn, she got an A in Stats because of David's expertise!