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If we can find a way to calculate A( M, N), we can just divide it by d M to find the probability. The odds of getting snake eyes exactly ten times in ten throws would be 1 in 36 10, or 1 in 3,656,158,440,062,976.īut what if we perform the experiment M times, and then ask for the odds of getting (at least) a run of N consecutive repeats of our chosen special result? It will be useful to have a shorthand way of talking about this, so we will write A( M, N) for the number of sequences of M trials that contain at least a run of length N. But snake eyes, two ones, can only happen one way out of the 36, so for a toss of dice and a run of snake eyes we would set d equal to 36. An outcome that involves different numbers on the two dice can occur in two ways: a four and a five, say, can arise with the first die showing four and the second one showing five, or vice versa. When we toss a pair of dice there are six ways each of them can fall, for a total of 36 equally likely outcomes if we keep track of which die is which.
COIN FLIP PROBABILITY CALCULATOR TRIAL
Similarly, if we devise an experiment that has d equally probable outcomes for a single trial, and then we carry out N trials, there are d N different sequences of results possible, and the probability of getting the one sequence where a particular outcome – say, result number 1 – is repeated in every single trial is 1 in d N. So the probability of getting the one sequence among them that contains exactly N heads is 1 in 2 N. If we toss a fair coin N times, there are 2 N different sequences of heads and tails possible, all of them equally likely. How can we calculate the odds of this happening when the normal rules of probability apply? There are many scenes in Quarantine where probabilistic events yield a long run of identical outcomes: a silver atom crossing a magnetic field swerves up rather than down, over and over again, or a pair of dice repeatedly fall as “snake eyes”.
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Quarantine excerpt | Quantum Mechanics and Quarantine | Probabilities of Runs.If you link to this page, please use this URL:.Probabilities of Runs - Greg Egan Quarantine Probabilities of Runs
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