Minus' Solution to

Seeing Red
Posted June 23 - 29, 1997

Tammy has 26 black cards, and 13 red cards. Therefore, she has 3 red face cards (from the diamonds suit).

The odds are 3/39 = 1/13 that the card was a red face card.

The odds are 13/39 = 1/3 that the card drawn was red.
Your Solutions

Bill Bishop [bishop@mcn.net] supplied Minus with the perfect dish to cleanse the palate.

If she takes out all hearts, that leaves her with 39 cards. If you divide that by the three face cards.You get a 1 in 13 chance of geting a red face card.

If you divide 39 cards by 13 red cards left.You get a 1 in 3 chance of geting a red card 





Emma Rohrlach, of Methodist Ladies' College in Claremont, Western Australia, wasn't going to let her favourite shark go without a decent meal. She supplied Minus with this tasty treat.   



Hello Minus!!!

I'd like to say firstly that Tammy should not be moping around the 
house after breaking up with her boyfriend. She should get on with 
her life!!! But we are going to give you our answer anyway.


So if she took out the hearts suit there would be 39 cards left. 26 
of these will be black and 13 will be red. So there is a one in 
three chance of getting a red card. There are three facecards in each 
suit left so 9 out of 39 cards are facecards, 3 of these are red so 
the chances are 1 in 13 that you'd get a red face card.








This next feature dish comes from one of the folks at TRADC TECHNOLOGY. Who said computer geeks can't cook? 



To Minus the Shark,


In a deck of 52 cards there are 13 cards in the heart suit, so Tammy
would've been left with 39 cards in her deck - 26 of them black and 13 of
them red.


This means she only had a 13(because there are 13 red cards in the pack) out
of 39(because there is a total of 39 cards) chance of pulling out a red
card. This can be simplified to a 1 out of 3 chance of getting a red card. And, as there are only three red face cards(the King, Queen and Jack of
diamonds) she only had a 3(because there are 3 red face cards) out of 39
chance of pulling out a red face card, which is simplified as 1 out of 13.


So Tammy had a 1/3 chance of pulling out a red card, and only a 1/13 chance
of pulling out a red face card(and this is all because of her mean boyfriend
who probably didn't know how heartbroken she was).








Matthew Armstrong, A.K.A. Boxhead, steamed-up a healthy solution for our diet-conscious mascot. We thank you. Minus' arteries thank you.



When Tammy removes all the heart cards, it leaves the deck with 39 
cards, 1/3 being diamonds, 1/3 being spades, and  third being clubs. 
Which means that 2/3 are black and 1/3 are red.


The chances of Tammy drawing a red face card is 1/13, as there are 3 red 
face cards from a possible 39, so 1/13.


The chance of Tammy drawing a red card is 1/3 as 1/3 of the cards are 
red.







Nine-year old John is back on the menu again. Is this like three weeks in a row?!!! Minus is going to have to give you frequent feeder points, John. 



Minus, take a bite of this!


Tammy picked up a standard 52-card deck. Therefore there were 13 cards in each suit because 52 divided by four is 13.


If Tammy took out the hearts, there were 39 cards left because 52 minus
13 equals 39. The only reds left were the diamonds hence 13 reds were 
left out of 39. The probability of getting a red was 1 out of 3.
As there were only three red faces left, the probability of getting a 
red face was 1 out of 13.








Christian Tawfik, from the University of Vienna, Department of Physics, supplied this week's dessert--a short, but sweet solution.



Tammy takes a 52 card deck. she removes all the hearts, so there are 39 cards left. the odds of dealing a red picture card are 1 to 13. 39 cards in total and 3 red face cards (diamonds). The odds of dealing herself a red card are 1 to 3. 39 cards left, 13 red cards.










Did you know that if you left a big bowl of food in front of a shark, he'll gobble it all up until he gets bloated and sick. Actually, we don't know how true this is in nature, but our mascot has never been normal. So special thanks to the following feeders whose solutions didn't make it to the dinner menu, but still contributed to our fat, bloated mascot.





Karina Karel [karelkm1@mlc.com.edu.au]


Candice Schalit [candswim@town.nd.edu.au]


Oritt Levi [rattyritty@hotmail.com]


Robert Van Dam (any relation to Jean Claude?) [vandam@web-net.com]









What is the probability of

Minus the Math Shark starring

in a feature-length Disney film?