Fun with math

“LMAO.”

“Dang HPM. That's some funny s---!

pedxing - Yes, but specifically as defined in my initial question.

Hopefully this isn't causing people to bark up the wrong tree here. I think there are terms to describe this, but not sure.

For context of the nature of the curve, it would be a probability curve. I can't be more specific than that.”

“revised (more broadly scoped) question:

What is the type of graph called that starts out almost like a straight line for a long period of time, and later rises sharply? (no inuendo intended)”

“like this:

”

“looks like a parabolic curve to me”

“sacco - it is a parabolic curve, but specifically one that starts out straight for a period of time, and then later rises sharply”

“lugnut - that is closer, but a cruciform is mirrored by definition, and the curve in question is not”

“My ancient mechanical drafting brain is struggling here.”

“oh, then thats a lugnut steam-from-his-brain-trying-to-answer-a-moonglo-question curve”

“I think moonglo is way more mathematically inclined then I am. This question should be on Jeporady. The steam in the brain is turning to gas in the ... Any way, my final guess is 'Exponential'”

“I seriously doubt that lugnut. Like I said earlier, "Hopefully this isn't causing people to bark up the wrong tree here. I think there are terms to describe this, but not sure."

By the way lugnet, you provided the answer I was looking for. Thank you!!”

“There are forms of the Beta Distribution that will give you curves like that, but I am not sure that is what you are looking for:
”

“http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295470,00.html

Mega Millions Lottery Ticket Worth $330 Million Sold in Baltimore Liquor Store

"You have a better chance of being hit by lightning at the same place and time every day for a week" than winning Mega Millions, Roogow said.

Do you think that is true? Out of all of the people on the earth, for all eternity, has anybody ever got hit by lightning at the same place and time every day for a week? How about the more likely once a month for 7 months? How about a the much much more likely once year for 7 years?

But, how many people have won the Mega Millions?

Anybody know if that statement was true?”

“bump - come on people - math is fun!”

“Taking hyperbole literraly can be fun.”

“The lightening example is used often. I hope he meant it as hyperbole, but typically it's used as a statistical probability. If that's what he meant, great! I do believe, even with the lesser example of "getting hit by lightening" just once, people believe that statistic as fact. I think it's incorrect personally.”

“I can count to ten...in spanish.”

“When he says "at the same place and time every day for a week" I think he goes into hyperbole.

The lightening strikes comparison really depends on how you definie each event. Are you comparing lifetime possibility of winning the lottery vs. lifetime probability of getting struck by lightening? Are you comparing the chance of any one ticket winning the lottery? Are you comparing the chance of getting hit by lightening on one particular day, year, week, month, etc? Do we mean a direct hit, or any kind of lightening injury?

Once you define the events carefully and precisely, it does become a pretty easy comparison. It seems to me that some of the comparisons are comparing the odds of a single ticket winning the jackpot with the odds of a person getting struck by lightening in a year. Usually those comparisons are valid. The link, below, suggests that 500 people in the USA are injured by lightening every year. That means in a year your odds of getting injured by lightening are better than one in a million. About 100 a year die - which means your odds of dying from lightening in a given year are about one in 3 million. Most big jackpots in lotteries seem to have at least 100 million combinations, so your odds of being injured or even dying from a lightening strike are higher than having the next ticket you buy be a winner.

Of course people buy more than one ticket per year on average, so you could easily spin the stats to make lottery jackpots more likely. For example you could probably demonstrate that the odds were that any given lottery afficianado is much more likely to win a jackpot than get hit by lightening.
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/enviromentalissues/a/lightning.htm”

“Yeah, it's like your chances of getting knocked out by Mike Tyson go way up if you actually box him. Most people have lIttle chance of losing to him. Got a better chance of winning the mega-millions than losing to Tyson.”

“http://www.npr.org/blogs/bryantpark/2007/09/a_fourdimensional_tribute_to_t.html

This was neat.”

“ohhhh, i thought this said "fun with meth", or as i like to call it, Indiana's state motto”

“http://www.nwfdailynews.com/article/9785

A man was charged with petty theft after being caught on a surveillance camera taking jelly beans out of a bin and eating them before he got to the cash register.

...

The deputy told a manager that the suspect had taken about 10 of the “raspberry-flavored” candies. The man denied taking more than two. He added that he’d been shopping at Albertson’s for 30 years and that he was just trying the candy to see if he wanted to buy it.

...

The jelly beans were priced at $6.99 a pound. The deputy estimated that the 10 jellybeans would have had a value of about $2.

--------------------------

$6.99/lb = 2.1875 ounces per jellybean given $2.00 for 10?

Did I figure that about right? 20 cents per jellybean?”

“Must have been jelly bellies. ;-)
If these peeps were math majors, they would have better jobs.”

“isn't it 2.1875 oz per dollar? So 10 jellybeans would be 4.37 oz. Would seem to be some big jellybeans.”

“From the Jelly Belly web site:

...880 Jelly Belly beans in a 2.2 lb, or kilo, bag. All counts are approximate, of course.

So if the weight of 10 Jelly Belly beans would equal x....

(x/10)=(2.2/880)

x = .025 #
so
.025 times $6.99 / Pound = $ 0.17475

so figure he might have ate 18 cents worth of beans with tax

(Figures by hand, so might by off a bit)
last edited: 10/26/07 12:40:09 PM”

“He was using a slide rule and rounded to the 2 but was off 2 decimals? Either that or the $2 was a WAG.”

“I always tell my boss if it's a WAG or SWAG.

For you nontech types:
WAG = Wild A$$ Guess
SWAG = Scientific Wild A$$ Guess
last edited: 10/26/07 1:07:00 PM”

“S = stupid?”

“You have been working by yourself to long, dayhiker. ;-)”

“We have other engineers in the office.”

“#&%!$...next week walk in..slip on the floor and nail em with a slip and fall for a couple grand...(LOL)”

“From wiki:

S.W.A.G., for 'Scientific wild-assed guess' or 'silly wild-assed guess' or 'sophisticated wild-ass guess'”

“So are Lyndy and SS right? I'm going to figure this out later when I feel like it.

I emailed my wife this news article and put in the problem and she is going to give this problem to her 6th grade class for fun next week.”

“I'm at home and can't find my calulator, so my arithmetic might be questionable.
I don't think my logic is incorrect.

Of course, that's if they are Jelly Belly jellybeans.
http://jellybelly.com/Cultures/en-US/Shop/CandyDetails.htm?CS_ProductID=1052943&CS_Category=Bulk+Jelly+Belly+Individual+Flavors&CS_Catalog=B2C
last edited: 10/26/07 2:04:25 PM”