an individual purchase dozen of eggs. there is a 50% chance that all the eggs carried on any one trip will be broken during the trip. The individual consider two strategies:

Question

strategy 1: take 12 eggs in one trip

strategy 2: take two trips with 6 eggs in each trip

What is the expected value in each two cases?

Answer 1

Hi Nimshi L.,

The expected value (of intact eggs) is 6 in each case. However, the distribution of possibilities is different: in case 1 it is 0 or 12, each P=0.5; for case 2 it is a binomial distribution (as you might expect, this came first, before the chicken OR the egg) of 0 (P=1/4) , 6 (P=1/2) , 12 (P=1/4) . Frankly, I would not trust this individual with any eggs, at any time.

-- Cheers, -- Mr. d.