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Re: Math is an Art
Posted:
Feb 22, 2012 4:22 PM
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Assuming the original assumption of independence, the odds of only picking 1 or less musicians in 40 picks is around 30%.
I am not quite sure where you are going with this. My premise is that because we teach math to everyone for every year the demand for math teachers is 10x the demand for music teachers and this fact does indeed dilute mathematical talent and skill in the ranks of teachers. I was already assuming the talent pools, be they 2% or 5%, were similar.
If all of this is to my question "Who here has taken a math class and who here has taken a music class?" the path you are following is irrelevant. I could type that same question in a blog about brick laying or fishing (in the U.S.) and every one will still raise their hand when I ask if they take math classes, and not raise their hand when I ask if they take music classes. We teach math constantly from kindergarten to halfway through college.
Why?
Bob Hansen
On Feb 22, 2012, at 1:15 PM, Louis Talman wrote:
> On 2/22/12, Robert Hansen <bob@rsccore.com> wrote:
>
>> Since they are independent the probability will be 5%.
>
> Very good, Robert.
>
> But I see that you have not gotten the point, and must be led by the hand.
>
> So let us suppose, again for the sake of argument, that 40 people with
> talent in mathematics are participating actively in this discussion.
> (A substantial overestimate,
> no doubt.) You have concluded, correctly, that (under our assumptions)
> the probability that any one of them is also talented in music is 5%.
>
> What is the probability that at most one of them is also talented in music?
>
> --Louis A. Talman
> Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences
> Metropolitan State College of Denver
>
> <http://rowdy.mscd.edu/%7Etalmanl>
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