I was walking along the street and saw a woman playing with two children of different ages. One of the children was a girl. What are the chances that both children were girls?
If you have not tried to solve it, have a go now. For everyone else the answer is after the break.
So, there are four possible combinations in which two children could be born:
BG
GB
BB
GG
We know that BB is impossible, so we are left with:
BG
GB
GG
If the girl was born first then the possible combinations are
GB
GG
If the girl was born second then the possible combinations are
BG
GG
Either way, the answer is 50:50
Did you solve it?
I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.
Published on August 05, 2012 23:30