Fakename wrote: : If you toss 100 coins, what's the probability of getting 5, : either heads or tails, in a row? 6 in a row? : How do you figure it out? You can make a simulation. Create a list of 100 tosses: [1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1] group them: [[1 1] [0 0] [1] [0 0] [1] [0] [1 1 1 1] [0] [1 1] [0 0 0] [1 1 1 1 1 1 1] [0] [1 1 1] [0] [1] [0] [1 1] [0 0] [1] [0] [1] [0] [1 1 1] [0 0 0 0 0] [1 1 1] [0 0 0 0 0] [1 1] [0 0 0] [1 1] [0] [1] [0] [1] [0 0] [1 1 1] [0 0] [1 1] [0 0] [1 1] [0 0] [1] [0] [1] [0] [1 1] [0 0] [1 1 1 1 1] [0] [1 1 1]] count the members of each group: [2 2 1 2 1 1 4 1 2 3 7 1 3 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 3 5 3 5 2 3 2 1 1 1 1 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 5 1 3] find the maximum of those: 7 is that number greater than or equal to 5 (if 5 is what you want) 1 (1 means true, 0 means false) Create a list of many such experiments (here I show 100 if them): [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1] find the average 0.99 If you try with 1000 experiments instead of just a 100 you'll get values like: show simul 5 0.975 show simul 6 0.84 show simul 7 0.548 show simul 8 0.3 show simul 9 0.15 show simul 10 0.081 Daniel -- submissions: post to k12.ed.math or e-mail to k12math@[EMAIL PROTECTED] e-mail to the k12.ed.math moderator: kem-moderator@[EMAIL PROTECTED] website: http://www.thinkspot.net/k12math/ newsgroup charter: http://www.thinkspot.net/k12math/charter.html
