MMM #24: Rock Band Madness at Blinkdagger

January 19th, 2009 | by Sol |

MMM #24 is available now at Blinkdagger. Here’s the problem:

The Problem Statement

The five songs that the blinkdagger band (Rob, Zane, Daniel, and Quan) can complete on expert are:

  1. Oasis - Wonderwall
  2. Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down
  3. Bon Jovi - Livin’ on a Prayer
  4. Wheezer - Say It Ain’t So
  5. Journey - Any Way You Want It

Assume the following:

  • The blinkdagger band only has time to play 8 songs before they have to start working on MATLAB tutorials.
  • For each of the 8 songs, the blinkdagger band randomly chooses to play a song from the 5 listed above.
  • All 5 songs have an equal chance of being picked.

Question: What is the % chance that the band will have played all five songs after their session ends?

Go to Blinkdagger for the contest rules and submission instructions.

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  1. One Response to “MMM #24: Rock Band Madness at Blinkdagger”

  2. By notedscholar on Jan 20, 2009 | Reply

    I’ll be the first to call “trick question.”

    Every event has either a 0 or 100% chance of occurring, a la cartes my arguments here:
    http://sciencedefeated.wordpress.com/2008/11/01/probability/

    NS
    http://sciencedefeated.wordpress.com/

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