Wednesday, February 23, 2011

REAd And reason

I went to a multiplex to watch the latest movie last week. Outside the multiplex at the ticket counter, there was a board that said "2 free tickets will be given to the first person in the line who shares his/her birthday with someone in line who has already bought a ticket. I could choose when to enter the line at any time. I tried using a bit of my knowledge of probablity to increase my chances of winning. And guess what? I won! Now it's obvious that I didn't know anyone else's birthday. Also, it isn't a leap year and so birthdays are uniformly distributed throughout a 365 day year. Using this, deduce what position in line I chose so as to give me the best chance of being the first duplicate birthday? Provide a detailed explanation along with your answer.


result next week