The Bears' homework "Problem"

Okay, lets lighten the mood before I log off for a few days. I just saw this on WGN and thought it was pretty funny. This is from the SN site. Its a students' math homework question:

"The Packers play the Bears 4 times in two seasons. The Packers, being a much better team have an 80% chance of winning each game.

What is the probability that the Bears win all four games?

"What is the probability that the Bears win at least one game?"

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I think Tillman worded his response quite nicely as it was obvious that the teacher who made the quiz is a Packers fan. We all know that that is the oldest rivalry in the NFL and it's good to see that it's still going strong. It makes for good Football IMO.

What say you?



BTW, I think the answers are 16% and 84 % respectively.

Originally posted by Taupin Desciple

I think Tillman worded his response quite nicely as it was obvious that the teacher who made the quiz is a Packers fan. We all know that that is the oldest rivalry in the NFL and it's good to see that it's still going strong. It makes for good Football IMO.

What say you?

BTW, I think the answers are 16% and 84 % respectively.

edit on 18-6-2012 by Taupin Desciple because: (no reason given)

I would agree given the current teams.

But it still pains me to see The Pack lose to Da Bears.

The other supposed great rivalry is the Steelers vs. the Browns, but I wonder how can it really be a rivalry when one team pretty much consistantly blows away the competition.

The Browns true rival should now be the Ravens...but the outcome is usually the same.

Some sort of sporting contest, I presume.

Let's see, the questions concern the Bears, whose baseline odds are given, indirectly, as the inverse of the Packers' 80%, so 20%. Those odds, spread over four games; 20%/4=0.2/4=0.05=5%. So you wouldn't want to bet on the Bears. (Unless these "Bears" are actual bears, in which case these odds need to be revisited. Unless "Packers" is slang for people packing firearms.)

Next, the odds for the bears winning one game in four would be 0.2*4=0.8=80%.

In addition, I'm totally putting on this hoity-toity attitude. I didn't even finish high school. If somebody came on and proved me wrong I would just think it was hilarious.

reply to post by Vitruvius


I have to give ya a star for that. That was funny.

And on the off chance that you don’t know, The Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears are American Football teams (as opposed to European Football).

I do love my Pack though as they are the only team in the NFL franchise that will never move as the town owns the team as opposed to some rich fat cat. And it is a fairly small town at that.

As a NFL team, they are pretty much an anarchism. The small town team that usually does pretty good every season.

Originally posted by Vitruvius
Some sort of sporting contest, I presume.

Let's see, the questions concern the Bears, whose baseline odds are given, indirectly, as the inverse of the Packers' 80%, so 20%. Those odds, spread over four games; 20%/4=0.2/4=0.05=5%. So you wouldn't want to bet on the Bears. (Unless these "Bears" are actual bears, in which case these odds need to be revisited. Unless "Packers" is slang for people packing firearms.)

Next, the odds for the bears winning one game in four would be 0.2*4=0.8=80%.

In addition, I'm totally putting on this hoity-toity attitude. I didn't even finish high school

. If somebody came on and proved me wrong I would just think it was hilarious

.

Gee, thanks for rousing this Bear out of his hibernation......a**hole

What are you, a Packer?

I suppose I did deserve those shots though, seeing how you took on the chin from me all those years.

But you gotta admit, we have something in common with the Bears. They have that “can do” attitude that only comes from people that you bet against, but root for. You may not want to put money on 'em, but you don't want to count them out either. It just wouldn't be a good bet.

That's why I like Tillmans comment: " The odds for us winning are 100% in my opinion". If you knew the pickle the Bears were in right now, you would REALLY love that statement.

If you're a Bears fan you'd say that he's taking positiveness to the winning level.

If you're a Packers fan then he's the king of wishful thinking.

reply to post by Taupin Desciple


What made it especially sweet is you were always better than me at math Since you're too far away for me to giggle at your squeakers I'll just laugh at your brain farts