+2440 This is the the wrong blòódy solution for this question! (MAYBE?)
You know, Mr. BB, I didn’t recognize you in this post until I realized you plagiarized the answer verbatim from Quora. Like usual, you demonstrated your impeccable knack for plagiarizing WRONG answers.
Despite the credentials of the answerer, Carl Bryan, B.S. Mathematics, Carnegie Mellon University (1972), his answer is wrong. He answered the question nine days ago, and it seems his skills have atrophied in the past 46 years.
The reason it’s wrong: This assumption:
Assuming you mean they go into three different cups (not two in one and the third in a second)
changes the parameters of the probability. This is the same as saying “The cup is covered after a ball occupies it, so no more balls can enter. This changes the natural probability of the question. It’s not the question asked!
The question clearly indicates that 0, 1, 2, or 3 balls can occupy one cup. This is a necessary consideration when determining the probability of that NOT happening.
I can post the correct solution to this Mr. BB, but perhaps you can plagiarize a correct solution, or you could actually post your own solution. (I’m sure that will happen!)
Edit: Strike out snarky troll comment and wrong reason. (see below)
GA
+2440 Mr. BB, the question asks for probability, not odds.
Your equation
nCr =20C3 =20! / {[20 - 3]!. 3!} =1,140 to 1
is SLOP!
Why would you expect any student to understand this unconventional hodgepodge of SLOP?
In this case, nCr stands for “no Crap required.” None is required, because you’ve maxed it out!
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Sir CPhill presents a coherent solution here.
+2440 Hi Melody,
My jest was directed to EP, for his final (appended) remark, in the post above yours.
Purgatory is commonly regarded as a cleansing by way of painful temporal punishment, which, like the eternal punishment of h**l, is associated with the idea of fire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatory#Pain_and_fire
Like any religious belief, individuals will adjust their viewpoints according to their own personality and perspective. So for many, such a place is an environment for prayer and meditation, while waiting for god to take them to heaven.
Personally, despite being raised as Catholic, I could never embrace any of the tenets of Catholicism (or any other religion). My first public demonstration of my contrary nature was in the fourth grade, after a visiting Brother gave a lecture (well couched in Catholic dogma) on creationism vs. evolution.
The teacher called on the students to ask questions or offer comments. Very few volunteered, so the teacher called on students individually. “Ginger, you usually have something to say.” I stood, which we were required to do when addressing the teacher or class, “You are too late,” I said. “I’ve already read Darwin’s book. God may have created the heavens and Earth, but I know I’m a chimp, just a new and improved version.”
After my comment, I started scurrying around the classroom and jumping on the tables while making chimp noises. I would have swung from the rafters if there were any. About a third of the class—mostly boys joined in the spectacle. I jumped on my best (boy) friend’s back; he could easily carry me around, and this continued for a few minutes, until the teacher scolded us back to our seats. During the commotion, I heard the Brother say to our teacher, “Your class room has become purgatory.” I remember thinking, “it may be purgatory for you, but it’s a little bit of heaven for us.”
Amazingly, we were not disciplined for this, although we did get a lecture on proper classroom behavior. After this, my classmates –usually boys– often brought me bananas. These banana gifts continued into high school. My chimp persona continues to this day.
Sister Alice, my mathematics teacher for 7th, 8th, and the first half of 9th grade, would often “condemn” her students (sometimes individually) to additional time in purgatory for poor math scores on tests. Her comments never came across as any kind of jest or levity. I would often intentionally “solve” problems incorrectly using various absurd methods, just to listen to her howl. My math grades were poor anyway, and by doing this, I rarely scored higher than D’s.
After one particular midterm exam, Sister Alice returned my test, saying, “Ginger, you are not going to purgatory, you’re going straight to heII!” To which I replied, “Oh, I’ll keep your company then, and you can teach me the correct way to solve these.”
My class thought this was funny, but Sister Alice didn’t. I received an immediate detention—the parochial school’s version of purgatory. I spent the time drawing Sister Alice roasting in heII, with demons stabbing her with pitchforks, inscribed with errant mathematical equations. I titled it Saint Alice Skips Purgatory.
Sister Alice was also the art teacher for the secondary grades, and she never cared much for my art, despite the fact that at least one of my art works always received honorable mention in every regional completion I entered—including one titled Beyond Purgatory, based on the one I did in detention. The Mother Superior (principal) confiscated the original—not because of the subject matter, but because detention was supposed to be a time of repentance and meditation. When she confiscated my drawing, she was doing her best to suppress her laughter.
The Mother Superior was usually “no nonsense” when it came to running the school, but she did have a sense of humor. Years later, after her funeral mass, someone told me she had my drawing framed, and she would hang it in her quarters for the week preceding All Saints' Day (Halloween).
To me this honor far exceeded all the gold/blue, silver/red, and bronze/white ribbons I’d won for any art completion.
GA
