Dice total divided by the better of two dice
Question
A game uses two fair dice. First you throw both and record their sum as your score. Then you throw both again and divide your score by the value of one of these two dice, choosing whichever die you like; the quotient is your final result. Playing to maximise your result, what is its expected value?
Short answer
. You always divide by the smaller die. The two throws are independent, so the answer is , where . This gives and the result .
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Open the worked solutionLessons behind this question
- Sample Spaces, Events, and the Probability Axioms
- Counting and Combinatorics
- Expectation, Mean, and Variance
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