Jumping in Puddles

Tue May 25

Tuesday Teaser #17

A brilliant, although completely useless, counter-intuitive probability puzzle this week.

  • If I have exactly two children and at least one of them is a boy, what is the probability that both of them are boys?
  • If I have exactly two children and at least one of them is a boy born on a Tuesday, what is the probability that both of them are boys?

Are these two probabilities the same or does the seemingly arbitrary “born on a Tuesday” change matters?

A controversial puzzle taken from this week’s New Scientist.

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