Walking down the street one day, I met a woman strolling with her daughter. “What a lovely child,” I remarked. “In fact, I have a younger child as well,” she replied.
What is the probability that both of her children are girls?
1/2 probability. This has been know to cause raging debates and is known as one of the variations of the Boy or Girl paradox. This variation is more straightforward because knowing the position of the child leaves only two possibilities – the other child is a boy or a girl, each of which have a 1/2 probability.
A man dove into the water with no tank, snorkel or any other device to allow him to breathe, yet he stayed down there to live for the rest of his life. How is this possible?
This problem can be solved by preschool children in five to ten minutes, by programmers in an hour and by people with higher education…well, check it yourself.