Timeline for Google question: In a country in which people only want boys
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
8 events
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May 13, 2013 at 17:22 | comment | added | user112109 | @Timothy: E[G/(B+G)] is not interesting in order to find "the fraction of female population". For that sake we need E[G]/E(B] and that is 1 because the sex of a child does not depend on the history of the mother. | |
Jul 9, 2010 at 0:31 | comment | added | T.. | Timothy, it only matters what quantity you ask for if you change the problem from the original to the one solved in Zare's much-upvoted answer. See my reply to his posting. | |
Jul 8, 2010 at 19:06 | comment | added | Timothy Chow | Daniel, I think you still don't understand Zare's insight. It matters exactly what quantity you're asking for. If G is the number of girls and B is the number of boys then "the proportion of girls in the population" is naturally interpreted as G/(B+G). The fact that E[G] = E[B] doesn't imply that E[G/(B+G)] = 1/2. | |
Jul 6, 2010 at 23:12 | comment | added | Daniel Asimov | Zare falls into exactly the trap I mention in my first paragraph. | |
Jul 6, 2010 at 1:31 | comment | added | Timothy Chow | Daniel, it looks like you haven't studied Douglas Zare's answer very carefully. He has made a very striking new observation about this old chestnut. | |
Jul 5, 2010 at 21:27 | history | edited | Daniel Asimov | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
added comment about Google's phrasing of the problem
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Jul 5, 2010 at 21:16 | history | edited | Daniel Asimov | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
corrected grammar
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Jul 5, 2010 at 21:11 | history | answered | Daniel Asimov | CC BY-SA 2.5 |