probability

[jmcwhirt]

Given there are n people with a $5 bill and n people with a $10 bill. Box office has no change initially. What is the probabilty that no person inthe line who has a $10 bill will to wait for change?

[Phantaxus]

well given that this is a uk site you wont get into our cinemas unless your money has the queens head on it

[Marsh]

Working it out empirically; for n=1 probability is 1/2; n=2, prob=4/6 or 2/3; n =3,prob= 15/20 or 3/4. I suspect that the answer is n/(n+1)and that there is a proper proof of this. I'd be interested to see that.

[bernardo]

It depends on the price of whatever they are buying, and how many n is.

[Marsh]

I had assumed a $5 ticket and a universal answer for all values of n

[Marsh]

Woops! I've worked out the probability that someone WILL have to wait. Make my guess 1 - n/(n-1)

[Marsh]

Hi jmcwhirt. Your question looked as thought it was an assignment which you had to do and then hand in. If so you should know the right answer by now. Please could you post here, along with the working out so I can find out how it was done?

[Marsh]

Sorry about all that bold. I haven't got my HTML proof-reading up to scratch yet