Practice problems for the last probability quiz
1. Each of the spinners below costs $4.00 to play. If your friend Dave is planning to play 100 times, which spinner would you reccommend that he use? (Use the expected value of the spinners to explain why)
2. Fred thinks spinner b is the best choice because you have a 3/5 chance of winning, and you only have a 1/4 or 1/2 chance with the other spinners. When is b the best choice? When is it not the best choice?
3. In the discussion of the identical twin Jim's in the book (pg 607-609), there were a lot of coincidences about the two Jims.
A. Some of these coincidences are probably caused by the way that identical twins have similar personalities, but some are probably random coincidences. Identify two coincidences you think are likely to have something to do with genetics, and two you think are probably random, and explain why you picked them.
B. We humans tend to be very impressed by these coincidences--more so than they deserve. Give an explanation of why these coincidences are probably less amazing than they sound.