if the chances of getting a stranger you like, to like you, is but 0.00001, you just have to know 100,000 people to make this dream come true.
true?
2007-06-26 21:21:22 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
Not true.
From the mathematical point of view you have to know and like 100000 people to be sure of a result.
From the more pragmatic point of view, you can strike lucky and find that person when you only know a few individuals.
2007-06-26 21:30:24 · answer #1 · answered by oldhombre 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Well, it is true that 100,000 * 0.00001 = 1.
However, there are no guarantees. Just through bad luck, you could go through 100,000 people and still not get any of them to like you.
It's kind of like saying that since the odds of rolling a 1 on a 6-sided die are 1/6, you only have to roll six times in order to be sure of getting a 1. Well, that's not quite true: it's entirely possible to roll six times and not get any 1's at all.
2007-06-26 21:32:56 · answer #2 · answered by Bramblyspam 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
False.
Odds of 1 in 100 thousand are the same thing as 1000 in 100 million.
Those thousand could be the first 1000 you meet. They could be the last 1000 you meet out of 100 million. That's the thing about randomness. All possibilities are possible.
For each 100,000 strangers you meet, you will AVERAGE one stranger who likes you. But you may have to meet a million or more strangers to find the first one.
Seems to me, though, that if you have to meet 100,000 strangers before one of them likes you, you probably should work on your etiquette, and on your personal hygiene.
2007-06-26 21:33:33 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
That's a rough rule of thumb, yes. But in fact, let's say the odds of someone having a mutual like of you is 1 in N, then the odds of at least one person in N haivng a mutual like of you is
1-(1-1/N)^N
which has the limiting value of 1-1/e for large N, or approximately 63.21%, true even for N = 100,000. If you want better than 99% odds, then you need to know about 500,000 people. Happy hunting!
2007-06-26 21:30:26 · answer #4 · answered by Scythian1950 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Based on your factor given, it's true.
100,000 * 0∙00001 = 1
I do think your factor is a but unrealistic.
2007-06-26 21:42:41 · answer #5 · answered by Sparks 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
♦ incorrect!
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Courage - to change the things I can,
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2007-06-26 21:51:00 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
no
2007-06-27 03:37:08 · answer #7 · answered by ali g 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋