Unfinished Game

An Advanced Mathematics Lesson Starter Of The Day

A coin is tossed repeatedly. If it comes up heads Pascal gets a point but if it comes up tails Fermat wins a point. The first person to win three points is the winner and receives the prize of £12.

Unfortunately the game had to end abruptly after three tosses of the coin. Pascal had two points and Fermat had one point. They decided to share the £12 in a ratio that matched the probability of them winning the game if it had continued.

How should they divide the £12?

 

 

 

You may be surprised at the correct answer as it is not £8 and £4!

More Advanced Lesson Starters


Topics: Starter

    How did you use this starter? Can you suggest how teachers could present or develop this resource? Do you have any comments? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make this free resource even more useful for Maths teachers anywhere in the world.
    Click here to enter your comments.

    Previous Day | This starter is for | Next Day

     

    Answer

    More Advanced Lesson Starters

    More Mathematics Lesson Starters

    Eric Levy, United States

    Thursday, November 17, 2016

    "Thank you for the podcasts! I really enjoy the puzzles. This relates to the 5/29/15 podcast re: coin flipping game that was stopped before completion. The flips when stopped were two Heads and one Tail. You indicate that the options on next 2 tosses are HH, TH, HT, and TT. Since the game stops when one person reaches 3 points, wouldn't HH and HT be the same, as the second flip isn't needed? This seems to match your ultimate answer of 75% and 25%, though ... with the person with Tails only winning with TT, which is 25% chance. I get the same answer but intermediate steps differ. Am I looking at this incorrectly? Thanks!"

    Transum,

    Thursday, November 17, 2016

    "Dear Eric, Thanks so much for your observations and you are completely correct. The only reason I chose to list the next two outcomes was to produce ‘equally likely’ outcomes making the arithmetic very slightly easier. I’m glad you enjoy the puzzles."

    How did you use this resource? Can you suggest how teachers could present, adapt or develop it? Do you have any comments? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make this free resource even more useful for Maths teachers anywhere in the world. Click here to enter your comments.



    Your access to the majority of the Transum resources continues to be free but you can help support the continued growth of the website by doing your Amazon shopping using the links on this page. Below is an Amazon link. As an Amazon Associate I earn a small amount from qualifying purchases which helps pay for the upkeep of this website.

    Educational Technology on Amazon

     


    Transum.org is a proud supporter of the kidSAFE Seal Program