# what are the odds?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-odds/110403>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 23, 2002, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-odds/110403 "2002-05-23T00:11:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2002, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-odds/110403/1 "2002-05-23T00:11:15Z")

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My son had 6 math questions on the bottom of his homework last night.

He got them all right.

I said, “great!”  
He said he guessed on all of them!!

What are the odds that they’d all be right?

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**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2002, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-odds/110403/2 "2002-05-23T00:14:23Z")

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If there are 2 choices for each one, it is 1 in 64 (or 63-1 against).

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**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2002, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-odds/110403/3 "2002-05-23T00:17:57Z")

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No, itwas like 400-237 [equals is great than or lesser than] 255-133

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**Author:** ![heresiarch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/278dde/32.png) [@heresiarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heresiarch)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2002, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-odds/110403/4 "2002-05-23T00:31:21Z")

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If all six questions had three possible answers, then the odds are 729 to 1. (3^6 to 1)

Maybe your son was making (slightly) educated guesses, even if he believed they were completely random.

I’m glad he did well, but if he had to guess he probably needs to study more.

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**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2002, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-odds/110403/5 "2002-05-23T00:34:24Z")

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agreed.  
or maybe he should start picking lottery numbers.😉

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**Author:** ![robertliguori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@robertliguori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robertliguori)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2002, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-odds/110403/6 "2002-05-23T00:45:19Z")

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Lesse. . .  
Assuming they weren’t multiple choice, the odds of picking the right numerical answer out of the aether is infinity to one against.  
So, the odds are  
(1 )^6  
( - )  
( infinity )  
Or 0. I say he read the back of the book.

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**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2002, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-odds/110403/7 "2002-05-23T01:21:28Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Assuming they weren’t multiple choice…

Apparently they were multiple guess.

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**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2002, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-odds/110403/8 "2002-05-23T17:39:25Z")

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It was a page of homework, there was no back-of-the-book.

He was a good guesser!