Challenge 467: Will There Be a Winner?
What is the probability that someone wins this game?
You may remember the aliens Arglbzz and Brthflum from Challenge 441, where they were racing against Clonk.
This time Arglbzz and Brthflum are playing a game of alien archery. In each round, the player closest to the centre of the target gets a point, but if both players miss the target then neither of them wins a point.
It so happens that in each round, Arglbzz has probability 0.5 of being closest to the target, while Brthflum has probability 0.3 of being closest to the target.
If they play a 7-round game, what is the probability that someone wins? (In other words, the probability that the game is not a draw.)
Note: for this problem, unlike most WMC problems, I would encourage use of a calculator to evaluate your answer. You should still include full working with your solution!
Submit your solution
Please do send in your solution to this problem to weeklymaths@kcl.ac.uk You can scan or photograph your written work, or type your solutions. If this is your first weekly maths challenge solution, please include your year group and the name of the school you attend. We'll be happy to provide feedback on your solution, assuming that you are in year 11 or below. If you are older than this, we hope you enjoy trying the problems and reviewing your solutions against those we publish on the website.
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