2025-12-16 17:33 UTC
@alisonkiddle@mathstodon.xyz my solution: I note that those are one in 2^10 and one in 6^4 respectively, so it's whether 2^10 is greater or less than 6^4. While I do know 2^10 from memory, I don't know 6^4 and I've got a little bit of a cold and would rather not work it out. But I can divide both by 2^4, to get 2^6 and 3^4, and I know those! Is 64 greater than or less than 81? It's less than! So 2^10 is less than 6^4 and 1/2^10 is greater than 1/6^4. So flipping 10 heads in a row is more likely. Which wasn't what I expected!
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@alisonkiddle@mathstodon.xyz 2025-12-16 21:13
@Taneb@hacksrus.xyz my favourite part of this is "I've got a bit of a cold and I'd rather not work it out" - it reminds me of my high school maths teacher who used to say "mathematicians are LAZY! we want to find the EASIEST way to work things out!"