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The last banana: A thought experiment in probability - Leonardo Barichello

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TEDEd Animation

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Imagine a game played with two players and two dice: if the biggest number rolled is one, two, three, or four, player 1 wins. If the biggest number rolled is five or six, player 2 wins. Who has the best probability of winning the game? Leonardo Barichello explains how probability holds the answer to this seemingly counterintuitive puzzle.

Now that you learned how to calculate the probabilities of each player win the “maximum game” in the video, let's look at the probabilities of another game. This is how it works: we roll two dice and calculate the multiplication of the two numbers we rolled. --If it is a multiple of 6, I win --If it is not a multiple of 6, you win. Here is an example: If you get 3 and 4, the multiplication is 12. Twelve is a multiple of 6, so I win! 1. Which player would win if you get 2 and 5 in the dice? Me or you? 2. Which player would win if you get 4 and 2 in the dice? 3. Which player would win if you get 1 and 6 in the dice?

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About TED-Ed Animations

TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here »

Meet The Creators

  • Educator Leo Barichello
  • Director Richard O'Connor
  • Animator Taisiya Zaretskaya, Marisha Falkovich
  • Script Editor Eleanor Nelsen
  • Narrator Addison Anderson

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