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Sixty-sided die beating a forty-sided die

Question

You roll one fair die with faces 11–4040 and another fair die with faces 11–6060. What is the probability that the 6060-sided die shows the strictly larger number?

Short answer

79/12079/120. With probability 1/31/3 the big die lands above 4040 and wins outright. Otherwise both dice are uniform on 11–4040: they tie with chance 1/401/40 and otherwise each is equally likely to be higher, giving 3980\tfrac{39}{80}. Total 13+23⋅3980=79120\tfrac13+\tfrac23\cdot\tfrac{39}{80}=\tfrac{79}{120}.

Adapted from QuantQuestions.io; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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