probability question

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Deleted member 374

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let's say i had an infinite amount of white balls and one red ball. assuming that each ball has an equal chance of being picked, what are the chances of me randomly picking the red ball?
 
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dee pixel said:
let's say i had an infinite amount of white balls and one red ball. assuming that each ball has an equal chance of being picked, what are the chances of me randomly picking the red ball?
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Impossible question, infinity has no defined number, your chances of picking the red ball are literally 0 as in this scenario there physically cannot BE a red ball
 
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Erid

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TommyGman said:
Impossible question, infinity has no defined number, your chances of picking the red ball are literally 0 as in this scenario there physically cannot BE a red ball
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It's not 0, it's what Jimbo said.
 
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Erid said:
It's not 0, it's what Jimbo said.
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Infinity isn’t a number, you can’t have 1/∞ much in the same way you can’t have 1/a it’s just physically impossible to give such a chance an allocated percentage / fraction.

Its common misconception that infinity has a place on the number line, it’s just a concept that has no actual definable way of describing it mathematically.

If there was an ‘infinite’ number of white balls then every single conceivable space in this universe and even then beyond that boundary (it would take up even the nonexistent) would be filled with white balls, there physically couldn’t BE a red ball as for there to be a red ball space is taken up by its volume, so clearly the number of white balls can’t be infinite as there is a place where there isn’t a white ball
 
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TommyGman said:

Infinity isn’t a number, you can’t have 1/∞ much in the same way you can’t have 1/a it’s just physically impossible to give such a chance an allocated percentage / fraction.

Its common misconception that infinity has a place on the number line, it’s just a concept that has no actual definable way of describing it mathematically.

If there was an ‘infinite’ number of white balls then every single conceivable space in this universe and even then beyond that boundary (it would take up even the nonexistent) there physically couldn’t BE a red ball as for there to be a red ball space is taken up by its volume, so clearly the number of white balls can’t be infinite as there is a place where there isn’t a white ball
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We're not talking about PHYSICAL white balls, we're talking about an idea, it's basically the same as saying what's the probability of picking a random number from an infinite amount of numbers.
The probability isn't 0, it can't be zero because there IS a chance you'll pick the number, it's just an infinite probability because infinity has no end.

If you regard this in an algorithmic manner imagine you have a loop that goes on and on for as many numbers as there are in infinity, eventually if you scroll through every number in infinity you WILL reach the number you're looking for, but it'll take an INFINITY to reach it, meaning as long as the defining spectrum is infinite, so will the probability be.
 
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Erid said:
We're not talking about PHYSICAL white balls
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Oh, fug okay I thought we were talking about if it were in the physical word not in the theoretical but it still can't be described as 1/∞ yeah in this idea there would be a chance but you can't simply define it as 1/∞

Here is the reason, I got of some google search after trying to sift back through my shitty maths courses at school about why you can't simply have 1/∞ (1 divided by infinity)

"The simplest reason is that Infinity is not a number, it is an idea. So 1 / ∞ is a bit like saying 1 beauty or 1 tall . Maybe we could say that 1 / ∞ = 0, ... but that is a problem too, because if we divide 1 into infinite pieces and they end up 0 each, what happened to the 1? In fact 1 / ∞ is known to be undefined"

So yeah you're right in this theoretical word there is a chance but it can't be described or labelled as 1/∞
 
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TommyGman said:
Oh, fug okay I thought we were talking about if it were in the physical word not in the theoretical but it still can't be described as 1/∞ yeah in this idea there would be a chance but you can't simply define it as 1/∞

Here is the reason, I got of some google search after trying to sift back through my shitty maths courses at school about why you can't simply have 1/∞ (1 divided by infinity)

"The simplest reason is that Infinity is not a number, it is an idea. So 1 / ∞ is a bit like saying 1 beauty or 1 tall . Maybe we could say that 1 / ∞ = 0, ... but that is a problem too, because if we divide 1 into infinite pieces and they end up 0 each, what happened to the 1? In fact 1 / ∞ is known to be undefined"

So yeah you're right in this theoretical word there is a chance but it can't be described or labelled as 1/∞
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I never said that infinity is a defined number, I'm just saying that it's not 0, it can't be 0 because there is a probability that you will get the ball eventually.
notice how I never simplified it into an equation like Jimbo did, I verbally explained it.
 
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Erid said:
I never said that infinity is a defined number, I'm just saying that it's not 0, it can't be 0 because there is a probability that you will get the ball eventually.
notice how I never simplified it into an equation like Jimbo did, I verbally explained it.
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Yes in a theoretical world it ain't zero, you're right, I was previously going along the lines that what if this were happening in the physical, where it would be 0 as it simply couldn't happen.

e: AAAAA don't dumb me I'm only going off of what I learned in further maths stop bullying me ;~;
 
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Is this your math homework or just a question for fun?
 
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