Engineer- OR, Mathematician test

To tell whether a person is an engineer, or a mathematics/ Operations Reasearch
type, give them the following problem:

A box contained 50 red socks and 50 green socks. You withdrew two socks; one
green and one red. What is the probability of having a matching pair on the
next withdrawal?

"Lat705" wrote in message
...
To tell whether a person is an engineer, or a mathematics/ Operations
Reasearch
type, give them the following problem:

A box contained 50 red socks and 50 green socks. You withdrew two socks;
one
green and one red. What is the probability of having a matching pair on
the
next withdrawal?

49/97

Joe F.

rb608 wrote:

"Lat705" wrote:
A box contained 50 red socks and 50 green socks. You withdrew two socks; one
green and one red. What is the probability of having a matching pair on the
next withdrawal?

49/97

Huh ? If you've already got a green one and a red one the probability
of having a matching pair on the next withdrawal is 100%.

--
Ken Fortenberry- Liberal Arts Major

"Lat705" wrote in message
...
To tell whether a person is an engineer, or a mathematics/ Operations
Reasearch
type, give them the following problem:

A box contained 50 red socks and 50 green socks. You withdrew two socks;
one
green and one red. What is the probability of having a matching pair on
the
next withdrawal?

The question is too vague to generate a unique correct answer.

On the second draw, do you toss the original two socks and draw another
pair?

Or you do draw one additional sock to add to the current set, from which you
try to make a matched pair?

Pretty much ousted myself with that response...

lat705 wrote:

A box contained 50 red socks and 50 green socks. You withdrew two socks; one
green and one red. What is the probability of having a matching pair on the
next withdrawal?

1

On 06 Mar 2004 15:18:24 GMT, (Lat705) wrote:

To tell whether a person is an engineer, or a mathematics/ Operations Reasearch
type, give them the following problem:

A box contained 50 red socks and 50 green socks. You withdrew two socks; one
green and one red. What is the probability of having a matching pair on the
next withdrawal?

Please provide me your understanding of the term "matching pair". In
what soical context do you utilize "matching pair". Etc. etc. until a
thesis has been produced.

(The Anthropologist's response).

Peter

turn mailhot into hotmail to reply

Visit The Streamer Page at http://www.mountaincable.net/~pcharl...ers/index.html

"Peter Charles" wrote in message
...
Please provide me your understanding of the term "matching pair". In
what soical context do you utilize "matching pair". Etc. etc. until a
thesis has been produced.


You already have a matching pair of socks.
(the red/green colorblind response)

Sniff them. If they don't smell too bad, you have a matching pair of socks.
(the college student response)

You already have two matching pairs
(the one legged man's response)

You have a matching pair of brown socks
(laundry challenged bachelor's response)

You have a pair of mittens
(the legless man's response)

On Sat, 06 Mar 2004 15:42:29 GMT, "rb608"
wrote:

"Lat705" wrote in message
...
To tell whether a person is an engineer, or a mathematics/ Operations
Reasearch
type, give them the following problem:

A box contained 50 red socks and 50 green socks. You withdrew two socks;
one
green and one red. What is the probability of having a matching pair on
the
next withdrawal?

49/97

Maybe it's too early in the morning and I'm missing an otherwise obvious
pitfall, but I'd have said 98-98...Or, "1"...

/daytripper (now awaiting the derisive laughter ;-)

A box contained 50 red socks and 50 green socks. You withdrew two socks;
one
green and one red. What is the probability of having a matching pair on
the
next withdrawal?

If it is a quantum box, the mear fact of reaching inside has changed the
probabilities and the color of the socks.

--
Frank Reid
Reverse email to reply

You allready have a pair that's close enough -why bother reaching in again.

"rb608" wrote in message
...
"Lat705" wrote in message
...
To tell whether a person is an engineer, or a mathematics/ Operations
Reasearch
type, give them the following problem:

A box contained 50 red socks and 50 green socks. You withdrew two
socks;
one
green and one red. What is the probability of having a matching pair on
the
next withdrawal?

49/97

Joe F.