Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Math question?

Posted on 05/07/2015 7:27:31 AM PDT by MNDude

I'm trying to figure something out for work, but my math skills are not very good. How do I calculate percentages if an event reoccurs multiple times?

Suppose there is an event that has the chance of occurring on in 6 times (like rolling a dice and getting a "five").

What are the chances I will get a "five" if I roll the dice six times?


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: math
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-68 last
To: Jewbacca

No I did not.

“How do I calculate percentages if an event reoccurs multiple times?

Suppose there is an event that has the chance of occurring on in 6 times (like rolling a dice and getting a “five”). “

nice try though


61 posted on 05/07/2015 12:04:42 PM PDT by Nifster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Nifster

Yes, actually you did. Read his follow up questions.


62 posted on 05/07/2015 12:14:25 PM PDT by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: JPG

Big Dick from Boston


63 posted on 05/07/2015 12:16:25 PM PDT by Benito Cereno
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: SAJ
If you think that's bad, I knew there'd be a typo. In the first case, I calculated the odds of not getting a single five -- which was the opposite of what was wanted.

The answer has to be subtracted from 100% to get the probability that one or more will show up.

64 posted on 05/07/2015 4:55:28 PM PDT by Tanniker Smith (Rome didn't fall in a day, either.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: minnesota_bound

Probably better to ask Tom Lehrer about THAT one, m’FRiend!

Sorry, haven’t a link, but the song begins: “You can’t take seven from three, so you look at the four in the tens’ place...”


65 posted on 05/07/2015 7:22:26 PM PDT by SAJ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: SAJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wHDn8LDks8


66 posted on 05/07/2015 7:26:35 PM PDT by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: Tanniker Smith
Tanniker --
For your future convenience, the probability of an event occurring (or not occurring) is always a real number between 0 and 1. Therefore, in any discussion of probabilities, any time I see figures stated as percentages, any time I see a '%' sign, I've simply nothing else to do except...sigh.

In fact, as MNdude ultimately explained his problem, he wanted the calculation of HOW MANY of 1000 'callees' he would ultimately reach, given a 0.16 (or so...he was vague) probability of reaching someone on a given call, and given that he would call them no more than six times total, and given (reasonably) that he would not call them again, having reached them once.

Well, of course, this is a different problem from the "fives" problem being thrown around here (and, in an AWFUL lot of cases, thrown around hilariously badly), but the solution to his actual problem is simple, if one is familiar with the actual discipline of probability.

Just FYI, I learned probability from Don Feder and Pete Weiner at Yale in 1970-1972, and have employed the science in my business enterprises ever since. I believe that I am quite competent offering a solution to simple problems such as these...and am entirely willing to back that view with some reasonable wager with ANYONE here. Proceeds to Free Republic, of course.

It really does become tiresome when FReepers either don't understand the question being asked or go off on some tangent or other when they post a 'solution'. Hence my 'sigh...' in the previous post.

You will have seen, I'm sure, the assorted calculations of 6^6 on this thread. That's fine, and they're accurate, but utterly irrelevant, and 6^6 plays no part whatever in ANY of the possible iterations of MNdude's original question or his later revision of what he 'really wanted to know'.

Best to you, and FReegards!

67 posted on 05/07/2015 7:43:00 PM PDT by SAJ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: jjotto

Thanks for posting that, m’FRiend! Anyone smart enough to get the jokes within Lehrer’s little send-up, as most FReepers doubtless are, must know straightaway what a disaster that Kommie Kore is.


68 posted on 05/07/2015 7:49:28 PM PDT by SAJ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-68 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson