Malcolm has been watching a roulette-style game at a local charity bazaar. The game has only ten numbers on the wheel, and every number except 8 has come up as a winner during the last 15 minutes. Malcolm decides to bet $10 on number 8, because it eventually has to come up. In this case, Malcolm is showing evidence of ...

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Mathematics

Arnav Collins

31 August, 18:49

Malcolm has been watching a roulette-style game at a local charity bazaar. The game has only ten numbers on the wheel, and every number except 8 has come up as a winner during the last 15 minutes. Malcolm decides to bet $10 on number 8, because it eventually has to come up. In this case, Malcolm is showing evidence of ...

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Harley Cummings · Answer 1

Malcolm is showing evidence of gambler's fallacy.

This is the tendency to think previous results can affect future performance of an event that is fundamentally random.

Step-by-step explanation:

Since each round of the roulette-style game is independent of each other. The probability that 8 will come up at any time remains the same, equal to the probability of each number from 1 to 10 coming up. That it has not come up in the last 15 minutes does not increase or decrease the probability that it would come up afterwards.