Rock Paper Scissors

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understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

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Last night my boyfriend and I were playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to decide who had to get up and turn the light off. We picked exactly the same hand shape five times in row before I decided this wasn't going anywhere and gave in! I think the probably of this happening is 1/243 (a 1/3 chance of playing the same shape per game, to the power of 5 games) But, we're not sure: the boyfriend argues that we were subconciously using the same "strategy" and I like to think we've developed some sort of mind reading powers through spending too much time together.
Total votes: 1232
Date submitted:Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:11:20 +0000Coincidence ID:3262