mathematics

[MagpieFL]

so, heres the problem.
i go to a quiz every Tuesday, the average number of teams is 8. every week a team number is chosen at random to send a member forward for a jackpot question. every week the team numbers are given out at random, this week we were team 7, last week team 1, next week we could be a different number again.
so, how often should we expect to be called on to answer the jackpot? we just went through a 13 month period of never going for it. is the system rigged? or fair?

rsvp

[insup]

Well if theres only 1 jackpot question per night and theres an avg of 8 teams, then the probability is 1/8. It dosent matter what team number you have tbh. Even if the numbers were fixed it would still be the same probability.

The system seems fair, how are the team numbers and the jackpot team picked? That could be rigged?

[Tosh]

to make it fair the numbers assigned to each team should be fixed and the number to pick one should be chosen randomly, or, every week the same number gets picked and the numbers assigned to each team are randomized.

[insup]

To make it fair so that each team gets picked the same number of times BUT randomly. You should fix the teams as tosh said. Then have a random way of picking the teams, as each team gets picked, they are not picked again until it has reset. That way eventually each team will get picked.

[Tosh]

after i thought a bit about it ... in Insup's first reply he hit the nail on the head with

theres an avg of 8 teams, then the probability is 1/8

but with fixed numbers it feels a bit more fair

[MagpieFL]

ya, the answers i have coming in are 1/8, with or without the double random choice, as we have gone 56 weeks without being chosen, it seems some skullduggery is going on.