Alexander Bogomolny shared a great problem from the 1982 AHSME yesterday:
I remember this problem from way back when I was studying for the AHSME back in the mid 1980s. I thought it would be fun to talk through this problem with my older son – it has some great lessons. One lesson in particular is that there is a difference between counting paths and calculating probabilities. It was most likely this problem that taught me that lesson 30+ years ago!
So, here’s my son’s initial reaction to the problem:
Next we talked through how to calculate the probabilities. This calculation gave him more trouble than I was expecting. He really was searching for a rule for the probabilities that would work in all situations – but the situations are different depending on where you are in the grid!
Despite the difficulty, I’m glad we talked through the problem.
(also, sorry about the phone ringing in the middle of the video!)
So, definitely a challenging problem, but also a good one to help kids begin to understand some ideas about probability.
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