If a probability >> 10-100 000 isn't zero, may I suggest a few math and science textbooks? What's the probability of drawing a specific card at random from a standard deck of 52 cards? If I say 0.019, do I need to show my work?
I understood Free Republic to be a forum of news, critical thinking, and good natured humor. I thought the ignorant and emotional interchange of those who demand to be spoon feed, was for other blogs. Critical thinking is our advantage as conservatives over the emotion and ignorance of the left.
A Northern-Line train leaves Waterloo Station headed North. At the River Thames the train reaches a constant velocity of 51’s-1. A man on the train is walking North at 4’s-1. He is eating an 8” chutney-prawn sandwich oriented N-S at a rate of 0.25”s-1. There is an ant on the sandwich moving away from the man’s mouth at 0.3”s-1. What is the 2D velocity vector of the ant relative to Nelson's Column?
A critical thinker doesn’t need the answer, he can figure it out for himself. If his solution disagrees with the one proposed, he then confronts the proposer with a reasoned argument. An emotional person is blinded by ideology; he nitpicks, "what kind of bread," "how much of it is already eaten," "is there grafitti on the train," "what kind of nasty British NIH denture work does he have," "prove your calculation," "what if he's walking backwards," "this isn't a physics problem, physics is the study of energy," "how 2+2 can possibly = 4," etc...
The exercise discussed is a derivative of the classic problem of Huxley's monkeys. Some statistical mechanics books use this as a basic lesson in large numbers and timescales. Huxley seemed reasonable at first glance, but nay. I didn’t believe it until I did the work for myself. Based the perceived emotion of your response, I don't think you will either.
Cheers!
You got 15 billiard balls numbered 1 to 15 in a bag. What is the probability to hit '3','10' and '15'?
Cheers!