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Last night my 6th grade grandson had the following problem: If a cat has five kittens, what is the probability that they will all be female?
Nobody knew how to arrive at the answer, including the other grandmother who taught high school math, and his mother who teaches 4th grade. His answer was 2 1/2, but who knows if it's right?
hmm, half of 5 is 2.5...and there are only two options:male/female.
I bet it isnt scientific on the probability so I'm guessing its a 50/50 question.
So 2.5 would be correct.
If the answer is a probability then it should be given as a percentage which means he told you 2 1/2 percent.
For each cat born there is a 50/50 chance it will be female (like the previous poster I have doubts about that) so a simple explanation is 5 times .5 which does give you 2.5%.
I know I got the same answer as Hungry For Cheese (Love that name!), but the logic is presented a bit differently.
I believe this is the correct answer. Thinking back to my engineering statistics I believe you multiply all the probabilities together. For each kitten there is a 50% chance that it is female. If there are five kittens, the probability that they are all female is (.5)(.5)(.5)(.5)(.5) = .03125.
I could be completely wrong though. I recall getting a 23% on one of the exams in that statistics class. The class average was something like 21%.
I really like this post. I think we should have a sub-forum that people can post these kinds of questions on. It can be all-encompassing of every subject to include science, english, math, etc.... I think it'd be fun, and it'll also make us realize how much we've forgotten since school.
I knew the rule for this one off the top of my head, though I tended to get some of my worst grades in math.
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