Statistics Question

[KidViciou$]

so i was on the phone for a job interview today, and she asked me if i've taken statistics. i said yes, but a few semesters ago. she wanted to ask me a question so i said go ahead.

She said if you toss a coin and it's equally likely to get either heads or tails, what are the odds that you'll get 3 head's in a row.

my response was 1/8th chance. is that correct?

 

[neutralizer]

(1/2)^3

 

[notfred]

yes, that's correct.

 

[Drakkon]

if its the HR person she was just seeing if you would laugh when she said "get head" 😛

 

[Leper Messiah]

YOu are correct.

 

[dullard]

There is a better answer. I would ask how many times the coin is tossed. If you just toss it 3 times, there is only a 1/8th chance of getting 3 heads in a row. But if you toss it a billion times, there is nearly a 100% chance that sometime you'll get 3 heads in a row.

I like to think one step ahead of the competition on an interview.

 

[KidViciou$]

nah, she phrased it that you flip it 3 times, and what's the probability that you get 3 heads.

thanks for the confirmation guys!!! my heart dropped when she asked me that, i was hoping she woudl say something like, is it 50/50 when you flip a coin, and i could be like "no, coins are not truly 50/50 although they are very close to it" 😛

i answered her question really quick too, so hopefully that got me some points. and i hope she's smart enough to know that 1/8 = 12.5%

 

[Koenigsegg]

Originally posted by: notfred
yes, that's correct.

Originally posted by: Drakkon
if its the HR person she was just seeing if you would laugh when she said "get head" 😛

:laugh:

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: KidViciou$
nah, she phrased it that you flip it 3 times, and what's the probability that you get 3 heads.

Ok, the original post didn't make that clear. Forget what I said above.

 

[mindmaniac]

Good job, even though I've just had statistics and did fine in it I still may have froze up under the pressure of the interview.

 

[KidViciou$]

Originally posted by: mindmaniac
Good job, even though I've just had statistics and did fine in it I still may have froze up under the pressure of the interview.

thanks bro. i'm kinda curious why she would ask me a statistics question if i'm applying for an Oracle DBA job, with job duties of also being an oracle developer???

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: KidViciou$

Originally posted by: mindmaniac
Good job, even though I've just had statistics and did fine in it I still may have froze up under the pressure of the interview.

thanks bro. i'm kinda curious why she would ask me a statistics question if i'm applying for an Oracle DBA job, with job duties of also being an oracle developer???

Maybe they have do statistical analysis of stuff in an oracle database?

 

[KidViciou$]

maybe, their customers are biomedical companies

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: Drakkon
if its the HR person she was just seeing if you would laugh when she said "get head" 😛

Reminds me of this time my probability prof was talking about Bernoulli trials and success rates.
Then he starts talking about the coin flipping and says:
"Here we define getting head as a success"
some guy in the back goes "Who wouldn't?!?".

:laugh:

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Drakkon
if its the HR person she was just seeing if you would laugh when she said "get head" 😛

Reminds me of this time my probability prof was talking about Bernoulli trials and success rates.
Then he starts talking about the coin flipping and says:
"Here we define getting head as a success"
some guy in the back goes "Who wouldn't?!?".

:laugh:

Did the prof get the joke?

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Drakkon
if its the HR person she was just seeing if you would laugh when she said "get head" 😛

Reminds me of this time my probability prof was talking about Bernoulli trials and success rates.
Then he starts talking about the coin flipping and says:
"Here we define getting head as a success"
some guy in the back goes "Who wouldn't?!?".

:laugh:

Did the prof get the joke?

Yeah, he got it, he's a pretty young guy, in his 30s maybe. So did the rest of the class because nothing useful got done in the next five minutes.

 

[stan394]

maybe this is just me.. but that is a fairly common sense question.. could have been answered by someone with high school math level....

 

[KidViciou$]

it's one of those things you don't think about stan

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Originally posted by: KidViciou$
so i was on the phone for a job interview today, and she asked me if i've taken statistics. i said yes, but a few semesters ago. she wanted to ask me a question so i said go ahead.

She said if you toss a coin and it's equally likely to get either heads or tails, what are the odds that you'll get 3 head's in a row.

my response was 1/8th chance. is that correct?

Man, if only I could find a complex mathematical way to get 100%