Friday night quiz

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 04 Feb 2005, 21:48

1. Name 3 British football clubs that include the letter 'u' twice in their name, excluding 'United'.

2. What is the probability of throwing two dice and getting a double, four times in a row?

3. On which 1985 single did David Bowie and Mick Jagger collaborate?

Don't post your answers here, but send me a pm. Solutions and winners announced tomorrow.

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 05 Feb 2005, 09:51

Congratualtions to Marya, the only person with all 3 correct answers, though I suspect she may have had some help from Homer on the football question.

The correct answers are:

1. Bournemouth, Stenhousemuir, Queen of the South

2. Six to the power four = 1296

3. "Dancing in the Street"

The probability question arose because a colleague and I were playing backgammon earlier in the week. Conventionally, the game starts by each player throwing one die each. The player throwing the higher score begins. If both players achieve the same score then obviously they have to throw again. After four duplicate throws I declared my opponent to be a witch and she was burned at the stake without further ado.

OK, I made the last bit up. Friday night quiz resumes, oddly enough, next Friday.

MrSpoon · Post by **MrSpoon** » 05 Feb 2005, 13:44

Hm...

If you throw 2 dice, here are all the combinations:

Code: Select all

11  12  13  14  15  16
22  23  24  25  26
33  34  35  36
44  45  46
55 56
66

If you did by naming the two dice, ie d1 and d2 you could argue d1=1 d2=2 is different from d1=2 d2=1 but for the purpose of this puzzle, this is irelavent.

So, above we have 6:21 to throw a double, or if you'd rather 1:3.5. The puzzle did NOT state that the double thrown had to be the same each time, so this same odd can be used for each of the throws.

So, the first throw is a 1:3.5 , and then you have another 1:3.5 of the first 1:3.5 of throwing another double - up to our four throws.

Now this is where my departure from the world of maths a few years ago lets me down!

I believe we calculate the compound odd by performing 3.5^4 (though I'm not sure!) If so, we're left with our final odd of 1:150.0625 - or if you like whole numbers in your odds, 1296:194481

Nb this is not the same as throwing the SAME double each time.

Can someone find a fault in my maths?[/code]

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 05 Feb 2005, 14:04

MrSpoon wrote: If you did by naming the two dice, ie d1 and d2 you could argue d1=1 d2=2 is different from d1=2 d2=1 but for the purpose of this puzzle, this is irelavent.

I think this is where your argument falls down. Otherwise, your maths is spot on. There are in fact 36 possible outcomes from throwing 2 dice, 6 of which produce a double.

ecm · Post by **ecm** » 05 Feb 2005, 18:47

Good grief - that's far too much for my brain to cope with.

Well done, Marya - you're da man!

I had a bash at the Herald Crossword today and I noticed that one clue each week is submitted by a reader and that today's was contributed by Nick Child of Edinburgh.

I wondered if it was POL's Nick (he who disapproves of Nick names - ha ha!)?

Nice one, Nick, if it was you. One of the few I did get btw.