Ed intends to roll a six-sided number cube 100 times

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Mathematics

Isla Hawkins

4 December, 05:01

Ed intends to roll a six-sided number cube 100 times

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Gracelyn Nunez · Answer 1

If you take the simpler case of flipping a coin four times, the most likely single outcome is two heads and two tails. But there are 16 possible outcomes, and only 6 of them are two heads and two tails. It's more likely than three heads and one tail, and more likely than three tails and one head, but it's not more likely than both of them put together.

The same thing applies to the dice.

Assuming the cube is fair, the most likely single outcome is to see 16-17 each of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

But that single outcome is not nearly as likely as all of the other outcomes combined. So Ed probably won't see exactly 16 or 17 of each of the six numbers.