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Re: The "two child problem"



On Mon, 28 Jul 1997, John Mallinckrodt wrote:

Marilyn had previously dealt with the following problem: A man and a
woman each have two children. The man's older child is a son and at
least one of the woman's children is a son. Is either more likely
than the other to have two sons?

Somehow this problem reminds me of one her old controversial puzzles - the
game show host and the three doors. At least in both cases it is the
numerating of possibilities that leads to the correct answer. I made the
mistake of posing that one to a group of combinatoricists one time. They
informed me in no uncertain terms that it is *statisticians* who get that
one wrong.

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| Doug Craigen |
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| If you think Physics is no laughing matter, think again .... |
| http://cyberspc.mb.ca/~dcc/phys/humor.html |
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