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The left-over matches

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2016

Christopher Bradley*
Affiliation:
Clifton College, Bristol 8

Extract

Matches of a certain popular brand are contained in a box designed to hold 100 matches. This box has two compartments so that if you open the box casually and without thought as I do, then you will select a match at random from one compartment or the other with equal probability. At some stage you will empty one of the compartments; and having more statistical insight, perhaps you will be less surprised than me by the large number of matches often left unused in the other compartment.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1984

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