A woman has two kids. One is a boy. What are the odds the other is a boy?

Well the question now is wheter we're doing the possiblites by combos or seperately..
If combo then its 33%
If seperate its 50%

Ah, but the question is not how many possibilities can be there. It's asking for the gender of a separate child from the other. If the order had any importance, yes, 1/3.

However... We have this two separate possibilities:

OUTCOME #1
Child #1 = Boy
Child #2 = Unknown

Child number 2: 50% chance to be boy - 50% chance to be girl

OUTCOME #2
Child #1 = Unknown
Child #2 = Boy

Child number 1: 50% chance to be boy - 50% chance to be girl

I can't see why it's harder to give birth to another male after giving birth to another. Because, after all, probability is about that.

The thing here is that it's not harder to give birth to a male after giving birth to another. The thing is that they have already been born. Say, you give life to two children. Then the following sequences are available:

BB
BG
GB
GG

Now, what is the chance of having 1 boy and 1 girl? that's 1/2. The chance of having 2 boys are 1/4.

Now, we already know that there is a boy in this combination. That leaves the 2 girls out.

BB
BG
GB

The 1 boy 1 girl probability is now 2/3, and 2 boys are 1/3.

This is kinda like if a coin gets head 5 in a row. What is the next flip going to be? Most people would say tails, but the coin doesn't know that. There is an equally chance of getting a heads again. The same here, there a equally likely chance of getting a boy or girl. Actually, the real percentages of guy to girl are 52%ish to 48%ish, respectively.

Read above.

And mang, I found the riddle:

Two Boys problem. Didn't know she was the one who "gave the answer" to this one though.

And mang, I found the riddle:

Two Boys problem. Didn't know she was the one who "gave the answer" to this one though.

Thread ruined.

But for the time being this thread turned out just as planned.

Thread ruined.

But for the time being this thread turned out just as planned.

I found the results of the poll pretty interesting though.

The thing here is that it's not harder to give birth to a male after giving birth to another. The thing is that they have already been born. Say, you give life to two children. Then the following sequences are available:

BB
BG
GB
GG

Now, what is the chance of having 1 boy and 1 girl? that's 1/2. The chance of having 2 boys are 1/4.

Now, we already know that there is a boy in this combination. That leaves the 2 girls out.

BB
BG
GB

The 1 boy 1 girl probability is now 2/3, and 2 boys are 1/3.



Read above.

And mang, I found the riddle:

Two Boys problem. Didn't know she was the one who "gave the answer" to this one though.

I understand the logic there, but once a variable is no longer random, it shouldn't be considered into the ecuation. If you flip a coin 5 times, and you know it was all the same side, you can take them out. It's the same possibility for either side on the next.

You don't know which one is, but you know it's one, and that the other is independant to the other.

So there's about twice as many females on the planet compared to males?

I wish that was true, though.

This IS true. How else are men going to explain the infidelity issue? Naturally, there're more women than men, thus some women will be single (due to not enough men available if you're to map 1 to 1).

PS: Its a lighthearted joke, dont go kill the bear now!

This IS true. How else are men going to explain the infidelity issue? Naturally, there're more women than men, thus some women will be single (due to not enough men available if you're to map 1 to 1).

PS: Its a lighthearted joke, dont go kill the bear now!

Dammit.

The sex of the first child doesn't effect the second probability of the sex of the second child at all. So it's 50/50.

I understand the logic there, but once a variable is no longer random, it shouldn't be considered into the ecuation. If you flip a coin 5 times, and you know it was all the same side, you can take them out. It's the same possibility for either side on the next.

You don't know which one is, but you know it's one, and that the other is independant to the other.

The thing is, it still is random~ We don't know whether the first or the second child is the boy.

"A woman has two kids. One is a boy. What are the odds the other is a boy?"
Let's rephrase the question into this:
"A woman has two kids. It is not the case that they are both girls. What are the odds both kids are boys?"

Will your answer be different then?

Another way to read the question is:

A mother has two children. Given that they are not both girls, what is the probability that they are both boys?

edit: I got ninja'd =(

You didnt ask what the odds where for 2 boys, you asked, "What are the odds the other is a boy?". Its an independent event. The other child can only be a boy or a girl, so its a 50% chance "the other is a boy".

Yeah I second that...the question is worded somewhat ambiguously. I assumed u were asking what the chances are that the last child is a boy, not "what are the chances all three children are boys". You already know the other two children are boys so there are only the two options of B/B/B or B/B/G.

EDIT: whoops nevermind...replied too early, and didn't realize there was another page of posts lol.

The thing is, it still is random~ We don't know whether the first or the second child is the boy.

"A woman has two kids. One is a boy. What are the odds the other is a boy?"
Let's rephrase the question into this:
"A woman has two kids. It is not the case that they are both girls. What are the odds both kids are boys?"

Will your answer be different then?

AH! Then it is indeed 1/3. But only because in the answer, one is now dependant to the other. Before, it was only the sex of the other boy, regardless of his brother's sex.

What does one kid have to do with the gender of the other?

What does one kid have to do with the gender of the other?

Nothing.

Correct answer: 33%.

Snarky answer: 0%. If only one is a boy, that means that the other is not a boy.

That is true. I believe out of every birth, 2/3 chance = female ; 1/3 chance = male, or something or the like. I don't remember the exact %. So if that's correct, 33% is the true answer.

It is a 50% chance (approximately) to have either a boy or a girl. 50% is the only logical answer.

The way it was originally phrased is a completely different scenario than this new question that has arised.

Unless the gender of the previous child somehow affects the probablity of the next child being a certain gender, the gender of the first child is completley irrelevant. Chromosomes assort randomly each time despite preivous fertilizations (random assortment of X and Y chromosomes always leads to a 50% chance for each gender under normal conditions), so there is no practical way that the previous kid can affect the gender of the next kid.

It has to be 50%

Two Boys problem. Didn't know she was the one who "gave the answer" to this one though.

This is the second annoying probability question I've seen today actually. I won't say what the other one is though because this thread is just for this one. The other one I saw, yeah, I agreed with its strange answer. That was actually mathmatical.

But this is just stupid. No other word for it. Unless I'm seriously misunderstanding...
"A woman has two kids. One is a boy. What are the odds the other is a boy?"
Does other not mean the one that isn't being refferred to in "One is a boy"?

Or are you lot on about something different?

(apparently) correct answer: 33%, based on mathematics.
correct answer: 50%, due to pure probability and an obvious assumption.
correct answer: 50%, due to the woman not having the children at the same time. Time is not a factor.
correct answer: 100%, the woman had twins.
correct answer: 100%, the woman and man have some deadly genetic combination making all potential females become stillbirths. (that's pretty mean)
correct answer: 50%, because I believe it's true.

scroll 2 items with dark scrolls(they will fail)
if one blows up what is the chance of the other blowing up?