[kswier]

I have to give the following poll for a homework assignment. Please disregard if the date is 2/24/2011 or after.

Answer the following question within a time period of a few seconds (don’t use a calculator or anything)

There are two towns. Let’s call them town 1 and town 2. Town 1 has 10 days of snow per year, and town 2 has 40 days of snow per year. The snow days are classified as days with a small amount of snow (minor snow day), and days with a large amount of snow (major snow day). In both of the towns the amount of snow that falls is random, however there is a 50% chance that a snow day will be minor, and 50% chance that a snow day will be major. Because the distribution of minor and major snow days is randomly distributed, it is possible to get years with more major snow days than minor snow days, and yeas with more minor snow days than major snow days. Each town records years where more than 75% of their snow days are major. Which town is the most likely to record more years where more than 75% of the snow days were major?
Please select one of the following options:

• Town 1
• Town 2
• They are both just as likely

Please fill out the poll above.

Thank you for your help!!!

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Last edited by kswier; 02-23-2011 at 04:10 PM.

[Ratmagiclady]

Read everything before doing anything?

(edit: Yes, that was about the date, since corrected by the OP. )

[lithos]

You lost me at that "snow" bit.

[deadwolfbones]

Lost me at "pole."

[eddie1960]

Lost me at "pole."

lmao

my thoughts exactly

[kswier]

lmao

my thoughts exactly

haha... I guess I was thinking of a telephone pole or something (I got it right in the end after I woke up a bit more ).

[rhodopsin]

I have to give the following poll for a homework assignment. Please disregard if the date is 1/25/2010 or after.

Okay.

Answer the following question within a time period of a few seconds (don’t use a calculator or anything)

There are two towns. Let’s call them town 1 and town 2. Town 1 has 10 days of snow per year, and town 2 has 40 days of snow per year. The snow days are classified as days with a small amount of snow (minor snow day), and days with a large amount of snow (major snow day). In both of the towns the amount of snow that falls is random, however there is a 50% chance that a snow day will be minor, and 50% chance that a snow day will be major. Because the distribution of minor and major snow days is randomly distributed, it is possible to get years with more major snow days than minor snow days, and yeas with more minor snow days than major snow days. Each town records years where more than 75% of their snow days are major. Which town is the most likely to record more years where more than 75% of the snow days were major?
Please select one of the following options:

• Town 1
• Town 2
• They are both just as likely

Please fill out the poll above.

Thank you for your help!!!

Chances it is Town 1 or Town 2 is the same answer as for 75% of 10 or of 40 coin flips being heads! What is the chance of 8 heads in 10 flips compared to chance of 30 heads in 40 flips? Intuition says it will be easier to get 8 heads from 10 flips, take less time. Calculate the odds...

[Northern Soul]

Mathematically speaking they are both as likely, if, as you say, the chances of a day being a heavy snow day is random. If the weather is truly random it's just throwing a dice.

Throw a dice 10 times. The chance of more than 75% of your throws being over 3 is the same as if you throw it 40 times, although the more trials you do the less variance you'll get. With only 10 throws you are more likely to get an extreme result, but if you repeat the experiment, the random results will average out too - so for every time you get 100% over 4, you'll get times when there are none over 3.

Weather is unlikely to be random though - if you get heavy snow one day you are either more or less likely to get it the next day depending on how much wind you get to shift the snow clouds, and other meteorological factors.

So the 'real' answer is that we need more info.

And I know I'm too late.

What answer did your tutor give?

[eddie1960]

Mathematically speaking they are both as likely, if, as you say, the chances of a day being a heavy snow day is random. If the weather is truly random it's just throwing a dice.

Throw a dice 10 times. The chance of more than 75% of your throws being over 3 is the same as if you throw it 40 times, although the more trials you do the less variance you'll get. With only 10 throws you are more likely to get an extreme result, but if you repeat the experiment, the random results will average out too - so for every time you get 100% over 4, you'll get times when there are none over 3.

Weather is unlikely to be random though - if you get heavy snow one day you are either more or less likely to get it the next day depending on how much wind you get to shift the snow clouds, and other meteorological factors.

So the 'real' answer is that we need more info.

And I know I'm too late.

What answer did your tutor give?

based on the info i would guess both. as you said if it is truly random this is the answer. real world of course is not the world of theoretical math problems like this and more info is required to be accurate.

[RioRico]

I have to give the following poll for a homework assignment. Please disregard if the date is 1/25/2010 or after.

The date now in California is 23 Feb 2011, so I will disregard this.

[SpecialK]

The date now in California is 23 Feb 2011, so I will disregard this.

Me, too. Plus, it does not snow here.

[Pablom]

Chances it is Town 1 or Town 2 is the same answer as for 75% of 10 or of 40 coin flips being heads!

it is not

Mathematically speaking they are both as likely

again, Mathematically speaking they are not both as likely

I don't want to explain because I don't know what the OP wants to accomplish (and I also don't know all the mathematical terms in English) but there is enough info in the first post to answer the question in the poll

[Bart]

Do we have 25 months now?

[Parallax]

I see that, as of this post, 7 people have voted.
7 people didn't read the instructions.

[Pablom]

I see that, as of this post, 7 people have voted.
7 people didn't read the instructions.

it is fixed now