ShmoopTube

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Here's an unshmoopy question you may find on an exam somewhere in life...

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What is the probability of rolling two dice and getting a one on each?

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And here are the potential answers...

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OK, so what is this question asking?

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It's all about odds.

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So we are in Vegas, baby and we're rollin' for mama's new pair of shoes.

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The key issue here that often eludes people is that the dice rolls are independent events.

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That is, we could roll a 4 eight times in a row and our odds of rolling a 4 on the NEXT

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roll are... still 1 in 6.

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So in this case, the odds of a 1 are 1 in 6; then on the second roll, the odds are still

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a 1 in 6.

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When we have successive independent events, we just multiply them.

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So we multiply 1 sixth times 1 sixth and get 1 thirty-sixth -- that's the odds of a

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1 and a 1 on consecutive rolls.

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Our answer is E.

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As in, "Eye in the sky."

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