Shooting Star
Braingle.com
on
Published in Brain Teasers
Gretchen is right. The probability that they will see a shooting star is about 32%.
We know that the probability that they don't see a shooting star over the course of an hour is 10%. This is the product of not seeing a shooting star for 6 consecutive 10-minute periods. So if q is the probability of not seeing a shooting star over a 10-minute period, we can say: 0.1 = q^6
q = 0.6813
We know that the probability that they do see a shooting star is just 1 minus the probability that they don't, or 1 - 0.6813, which equals about 32%.
Today's brain teaser courtesy of Braingle.com.