Shivari post=18.73797.809485 said:
I believe the correct answer is "Fuck Math".
In Russia, math fucks you!
Actually this sort of math is extremely important in business, even more so in science. Failing to understand such basic statistical functions can lead to poor investments or failed designs. Suppose an available investment is a company with two copper mines, both of which must strike copper to make a profit. From the scientific analysis of similar mines, each mine has a 50% chance of striking a workable copper vein. One of the mines already has struck copper. What's the chance the other will also strike copper? If the investment is $1,000,000 but the possible profit is $2,750,000, is it a mathematically sound investment or not? If you know the chance of a fuel rod failing from a defect is 50% and one of your two fuel rods has failed, what are the odds your new death star is going to suffer complete power failure?
Math is much more likely to fuck you than the reverse.
The trick to the question is that it populates the set with things - namely, a pup and its sex - whose probability spread you intrinsically understand. If the set were sixty randomly selected molecules each with a 0.003% chance of being contaminated, you would probably see the problem as a set problem rather than as simply guessing the sex of a second pup.
Imitation Saccharin, the question was the probability of the second pup also being male, not the probability of either pup being male.