Understanding the Sisters Paradox: A Counter-Intuitive Probability Problem
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Vermin2000
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Summary
This article explores the famous "sisters paradox" (also known as the boy or girl paradox) in probability theory. It presents a counter-intuitive problem: if a family has two children and at least one is a girl, what is the probability that both are girls? The article walks through the reasoning, explaining how conditional probability leads to the surprising answer of 1/3 (not 1/2 as intuition might suggest), and provides background on this well-known probability puzzle.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledIt seems simple, but it isn't
There are a couple of famous counter-intuitive problems in probability theory and the sisters 'paradox' is one of them.
Assume that the probability of having a girl or boy is 50% and that the birth order has no effect on the probability.
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