The Joker's Wild by Milton Bradley

[alfonzos]

I sold a home game and while checking it for completeness I came across this probabilty sheet I did several years ago.

Three jokers - 32.8:1 against
Natural triple - 202:1 against
Three unique categories - 5.3 :1 against
No jokers - 2.6:1 against
At least one joker - 2.6:1 in favor

Does any fan of the series know if those odds corelate with the series?

Speaking of fandom, has any fan of the series taken one of those toy slot machines and altered it to play TJW? How did it work out?

[TLEberle]

[quote name=\'alfonzos\' post=\'140057\' date=\'Dec 9 2006, 03:14 PM\']Does any fan of the series know if those odds corelate with the series?[/quote]Assuming that what I read is in fact correct, the odds for the series are not the same. With five jokers and three each of five category cards (for a total of 20), the odds of a three jokers spin would be 1:64, as opposed to the "100,000 to 1, or 200,000 to 1" that Jack Barry would have you believe.

Other results will be left for those with greater competency in probability and combinatorics than me.

[MikeK]

If there were indeed 5 jokers and 3 of each category on the wheel...

Three jokers - 1 in 64 chance (125 possibilities among 8000 possible results)
Natural triple - 1 in 59.29 chance (135 in 8000)
Three unique categories - 1 in 4.94 chance (1620 in 8000)
No jokers - 1 in 2.37 chance (3375 in 8000)
At least one joker - 1 in 1.73 chance (4625 in 8000)

[Robert Hutchinson]

Darnit, Mike beat me! I guess I can still show some of the work involved, if anyone is curious:

Natural triple: (15/20 * 3/20 * 3/20)

You have a 15/20 chance of spinning any category to start, followed by two 3/20 chances to match that specific category for the triple.

Three unique categories: (15/20 * 12/20 * 9/20)

Again, 15/20 to start by getting a category, followed by a 12/20 chance to get a different category, and a 9/20 chance of avoiding both of the previous categories (and of course, no Jokers).

No jokers: (15/20 * 15/20 * 15/20)

At least one joker: (1 - the chance of no jokers)

[MikeK]

Sorry for beating you to the punch, Robert.  You get an A for showing work.

/I wish my students did a fraction of the work Robert showed.

[mcsittel]

[quote name=\'MikeK\' post=\'140067\' date=\'Dec 9 2006, 09:03 PM\']
Sorry for beating you to the punch, Robert.  You get an A for showing work.

/I wish my students did a fraction of the work Robert showed.
[/quote]

Agreed!  I had one of my brilliant statistics students e-mail me this last night:

"I have a question about # 4. It states the probability of rolling doubles on a pair of 6-sided die is 1/6.  Since there are two die wouldn’t it be 1/12. I will use 1/6 like the problem states unless I hear otherwise from you."
 
Mr. Hutchinson, print out your message, get a red pen, write a 100 on it, put a smiley face in one of the zeroes, and put it up on the fridge for all to see.  Ya done good!  You can sub for my class anytime...

Mr. Sittel

[Robert Hutchinson]

Before you teacher types get my head too swelled, I was also the kid who had to point out every last mistake the math teacher made. Not in an intentionally nasty way--it was just like I had spotted the first smoke of a forest fire, and had to warn everyone. Thankfully, someone finally took me aside in high school and mentioned that there *might* be nicer ways to point out mistakes.

[MikeK]

[quote name=\'Robert Hutchinson\' post=\'140308\' date=\'Dec 12 2006, 03:08 PM\']Before you teacher types get my head too swelled, I was also the kid who had to point out every last mistake the math teacher made.[/quote]
I did the same in high school and look where it got me!

Mr. Klauss

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'MikeK\' post=\'140318\' date=\'Dec 12 2006, 06:22 PM\']
[quote name=\'Robert Hutchinson\' post=\'140308\' date=\'Dec 12 2006, 03:08 PM\']Before you teacher types get my head too swelled, I was also the kid who had to point out every last mistake the math teacher made.[/quote]
I did the same in high school and look where it got me!

Mr. Klauss
[/quote]

<Insert "Welcome Back, Kotter" theme here>

Reminds me of an old math teacher that always used his middle finger to point out numbers and other assorted mathematical stuff on the board.  

Never found out if he was purposely saluting the material he had to teach us, purpously saluting the students in general, or not having a clue as to what he was doing as he was a strict, stone-faced SOB.