The Maths Thread

[Onholiday(somemightsay)]

Still does my head in that:
Are there more equivalent fractions to 6/10 than there are to 3/7?
I’d say there are more to 6/10 because of 3/5 but the mathematician would say there are an infinite number to both 6/10 and 3/7.
Yeah, but you can simplify 6/10.
Yeah, but you can’t have “more “ equivalent fractions than an infinite number of equivalent fractions!

Whatever happened to the 'My fancy my pornstar neighbor, what should I do?' threads.....,.....?

 

[blueish swede]

how so?
we didn't take this into consideration.

If you're born at one minute past midnight you have to make it through 24 hous, if you're born at one minute to midnight, just one minute.

 

[2smokinberyls smockfrocks]

I would imagine newborn mortality is significantly less than 1 in 1000 in the Western world. Perhaps a bit higher in developing countries. Anyway I would hazard a guess that the chances of dying on your birthday is well under .01%.

the question posed didn't state only in the western world, so let's assume we are talking about globally, where mortality rates are much much higher.

and you only seem to taking into account full-term births...
you also need to factor in stillbirths and miscarriages that can occur at any stage during the whole pregnancy.
i think these would be included because, in that circumstance, you would die on the day you were born.

on top of which, deliberate terminations must be included and there are a lot of them too, especially in less well-developed nations, although many go unrecorded (as no doubt they did in our western world up until, at a guess, 75 years ago).
additionally there are those cases of being born with severe deformities and/or ailments who are immediately allowed to die, again more common in poorer nations and bearing in mind that the majority of people on the planet are poor, it's a sad fact but it happens.

that's as far as our chat on the subject got because the wine ran out, but we will be meeting again this week and i'll bring up the comments on this thread and see where it takes us.

as it stands, like i said, i think, all things considered, i reckon nature evens up and i'm sticking with 50/50 until someone can offer proof otherwise.

 

[2smokinberyls smockfrocks]

And I would say that’s wrong.

see my above post, eamo.

 

[2smokinberyls smockfrocks]

If you're born at one minute past midnight you have to make it through 24 hous, if you're born at one minute to midnight, just one minute.

this is a very prudent point we hadn't thought about.
especially if you were born in a warzone or in a remote place with no nearby medical facilities or in a country ravaged by famine/drought/disease/etc.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

the question posed didn't state only in the western world, so let's assume we are talking about globally, where mortality rates are much much higher.

and you only seem to taking into account full-term births...
you also need to factor in stillbirths and miscarriages that can occur at any stage during the whole pregnancy.
i think these would be included because, in that circumstance, you would die on the day you were born.

on top of which, deliberate terminations must be included and there are a lot of them too, especially in less well-developed nations, although many go unrecorded (as no doubt they did in our western world up until, at a guess, 75 years ago).
additionally there are those cases of being born with severe deformities and/or ailments who are immediately allowed to die, again more common in poorer nations and bearing in mind that the majority of people on the planet are poor, it's a sad fact but it happens.

that's as far as our chat on the subject got because the wine ran out, but we will be meeting again this week and i'll bring up the comments on this thread and see where it takes us.

as it stands, like i said, i think, all things considered, i reckon nature evens up and i'm sticking with 50/50 until someone can offer proof otherwise.

Seems like you need to define what you perceive the variables to be. If everyone has differing variables, then no real solution will ever be found.

I would make it easy and negate stillbirths and miscarriages as they were never born alive. They only existed within the womb.

Disabled and deformed births should be classed the same as all other live births and included.

The question should be those that die on the day of their actual birth. That will be nowhere near 50/50.

Other “birthdays” are actually anniversaries of a person’s birth, not an actual birthday, so should be excluded.

 

[2smokinberyls smockfrocks]

I would make it easy and negate stillbirths and miscarriages as they were never born alive. They only existed within the womb.

yes, they only existed in the womb but they were alive before they died on the day they were born.
the question wasn't "what are the chances of dying after you are born on the day you are born"

The question should be those that die on the day of their actual birth.

yeah, but that wasn't the question though.
we can't go changing the question part way through working out the answer.
we have to stick with the initial question, alan.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

yes, they only existed in the womb but they were alive before they died on the day they were born.
the question wasn't "what are the chances of dying after you are born on the day you are born"


yeah, but that wasn't the question though.
we can't go changing the question part way through working out the answer.
we have to stick with the initial question, alan.

Ok, I’m out.

Good luck finding your solution. I doubt you will somehow.

 

[SkyBlueFlux]

Seems like you need to define what you perceive the variables to be. If everyone has differing variables, then no real solution will ever be found.

I would make it easy and negate stillbirths and miscarriages as they were never born alive. They only existed within the womb.

Disabled and deformed births should be classed the same as all other live births and included.

The question should be those that die on the day of their actual birth. That will be nowhere near 50/50.

Other “birthdays” are actually anniversaries of a person’s birth, not an actual birthday, so should be excluded.

Technically… we know 50/50 is definitely not the correct answer. How?

Because the area under a probability density function at any specific point has no width. Probabilities are continuous variables, if you integrate between two points in a pdf it will give you the probability of an event occurring in that interval, but the integral calculated between an interval of no width is zero.

So the one thing we can say for sure is that the answer is infinitely precise and however close we come to estimating it we will never be exactly correct.

And on that note… I’m also out.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Technically… we know 50/50 is definitely not the correct answer. How?

Because the area under a probability density function at any specific point has no width. Probabilities are continuous variables, if you integrate between two points in a pdf it will give you the probability of an event occurring in that interval, but the integral calculated between an interval of no width is zero.

So the one thing we can say for sure is that the answer is infinitely precise and however close we come to estimating it we will never be exactly correct.

And on that note… I’m also out.

Agreed, but the statistical probability that it is exactly 50/50 is minuscule, without having to factor in the other variables.