FOX News: Math

Win.

At 80 mph, how long does it take to go 80 miles?

"Nooo, allergies are real. If I have a strawberry my throat shuts up faster than a girl in math class."

Verizon .002 cents

Here's the problem with the caller's argument: There is a difference between ".002 cents" and ".002 of a cent". The caller assumes that Verizon charged .002 of a cent. Verison actually charges .002 cents. The guy on the phone says "you're being charged 2/10 of a penny".

The base unit of currency in the United States is a dollar. Talking in terms of fractions of cents is somewhat absurd given that cents in-and-of-itself is already a fraction of dollars. ".75" cents does not mean .75 of a cent.

I think there is a wonderful little language theory discussion to be had of this.

Probability - You don't have to believe in it for it to work

I think I've finally convinced myself that probability behaves the way that people say it does, by which I mean, essentially, that the odds of flipping heads twice in a row is 1/4, but the odds of flipping heads after already flipping heads once already is 1/2. I have nursed the idea that that second flip is influenced by the first; that there is a force beyond human reckoning that will turn that second coin tails just to maintain the status quo. The problem with that logic is what I think can best be described as believing in "doncha think it's due?": the gambling pitfall that makes you put all your money on 15 black because it's been hours since it's come up and, doncha think it's due?

The reason that line of thinking is so tempting is because it makes sense in a way. If you roll the die a hundred thousand times, you're going to get all six results with a pretty even distribution, so if you find yourself in a streak of rolls with no fives, it stands to some sort of reason that five is going to HAVE to come up soon in order to keep up with the other results. The problem with that is that it assumes that even though the odds of getting a five on your next roll is 1/6, there is some sort of universal probability equality law that increases your odds. Who says that your sample of 100,000 rolls has to have an equal distribution? If I roll six times, should I expect equal distribution? What if I roll a million times? How can you possibly hope to say anything about one single roll? Is the guy rolling dice on the other side of the world "using up" all the five rolls? Probability, in theoretical terms I suppose, is based on infinite sample sizes, and so basing your assumptions on what "is due" on a finite sample seems silly, especially when you consider that it's a sample size based on the number of times a guy can roll dice in one sitting, or on what will come up next.


I don't know if I've explained myself very well, but this will at least spark a discussion amongst the people who aren't sick of this topic already, and I just wanted to put out there that I'm finally happy in thinking that the flip of the coin already finished can do nothing to influence the next flip. Hmm.