Monkeys Typing Shakespeare An often-quoted example of an event of extremely low probability is that a monkey types Shakespeare's entire play Hamlet by randomly striking keys on a typewriter. Assume that the typewriter has 48 keys (including the space bar) and that the monkey is equally likely to hit any key. (a) Find the probability that such a monkey will actually correctly type just the title of the play as his first word. (b) What is the probability that the monkey will type the phrase "To be or not to be" as his first words?
Added by Olga M.
Step 1
There are 6 letters in the title, and the monkey has a 1/48 chance of hitting the correct key for each letter. Since the monkey needs to hit the correct keys in the correct order, we can multiply the probabilities together: Probability of typing "Hamlet" = (1/48) Show more…
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Probability
An often-quoted example of an event of extremely low probability is that a monkey types Shakespeare's entire play Hamlet by randomly striking keys on a typewriter. Assume that the typewriter has 48 keys (including the space bar) and that the monkey is equally likely to hit any key. a. Find the probability that such a monkey will actually correctly type just the title of the play as his first word. b. What is the probability that the monkey will type the phrase "To be or not to be" as his first words?
Probabliliy and Statistics
An often-quoted example of an event of extremely low probability is that a monkey types Shakespeare’s entire play Hamlet by randomly striking keys on a typewriter. Assume that the typewriter has 48 keys (including the space bar) and that the monkey is equally likely to hit any key. (a) Find the probability that such a monkey will actually correctly type just the title of the play as his first word. (b) What is the probability that the monkey will type the phrase “To be or not to be” as his first words?
William F.
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