Felicity's tennis match

by Alexa Smith Banned

Posted: 14 years ago 9 replies

OFF TOPIC

To try to encourage Felicity's possible professional career in tennis, her older brother offers her a special prize if she can win two consecutive sets out of a three-set series played alternately against himself and her coach.

She can play either c/b/c (coach, then brother, then coach again) or b/c/b (brother, then coach, then brother again), whichever she prefers.

The coach is definitely a better player than Felicity's brother.

To give herself the best chance, which series (c/b/c or b/c/b) should she choose, and why, and can you prove it?

#felicity #match #tennis

Kelly Verge 14 years ago

CBC

In order to with the prize in the BCB scenario, she must beat the coach in the only game she plays him. In CBC, she has two chances to beat him (as long as she's able to beat her brother - which is an easier win for her).

If you were flipping a coin and had to get "heads," wouldn't you rather have two chances than one?
- Thanks
Signature

OFFLINE POWER TOOLS #1 - Offline MindMap (FREE WSO) | #2 - White Paper
#3 - Seminar Presentation | #4 - Offline Sales "Poster" | #5 - Offline Postcards
FREE Offline Consulting Video Series (No Opt-In)
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2379475].message }}
Shaleniie Devi 14 years ago

BCB

As her brother is the 'weaker' player out of the 2, I feel the odds of her beating her brother are higher in the first match then when taking on the coach on first try.

If she wins against her brother and competes against the coach next, the winning confidence she gains from her first win can be carried over and she will have the belief that she CAN win again...

And if she does beat the coach, then her confidence is further rocketed and since she beat the coach, she can definitely beat her brother again making it 3 out of 3 wins.

Unlike in CBC, where if she loses in her first match... the opposite of all I stated above can happen.

My reasoning for this: I have planted myself in Felicity's shoes... or maybe I'm giving life to Felicity.

Anyhow I hope this helps, Alexa
- Thanks
Signature

[FREE WSO] 3 Easy Strategies to Profitable Email Marketing!!! [NEWBIE-FRIENDLY]
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2379530].message }}
Sumit Menon 14 years ago

Who's Felicity?
- Thanks
- 1 reply
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2379543].message }}
- Bill Farnham 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Sumit Menon
  
  Who's Felicity?
  
  Appearently she also has the balls to play tennis...
  
  I'm going with B/C/B (easy/hard/easy), as well.
  
  Thanks
  
  2 replies
  
  Signature
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2379578].message }}
  
  Frank Donovan 14 years ago
  
  Ooh ooh, I think I know this - is it 10.6?
  
  Okay, I'll go for C/B/C.
  
  For a start, it's the less obvious option. But also, as Kelly says, she's only got to beat the coach and her brother once each. If she can't beat the coach at all, she gets nothing, so having two chances to do that has to be the best bet.
  
  Frank
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
  Signature
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2379730].message }}
  
  Alexa Smith Banned 14 years ago
  
  Looks like we have two votes for b/c/b and two votes for c/b/c. I'd better try the casting vote, here?
  
  She can't win two consecutive sets without winning the middle set. So it's really about whether the importance of winning the middle set outweighs the disadvantage of (possibly) having to play the coach twice rather than the brother twice.
  
  If you look at an "extreme example" (which is equally valid in all situations in which - as specified - the coach is a better player than the brother, regardless of "by how much") and say that she actually beats the brother 99.9% of the time because he can't really play the game too well at all and he can win only if she wears my shoes and breaks her ankle, but she has only a 50/50 chance (say) against the teacher, it's clear that her overall chances in the sequence b/c/b are going to be about 50%, because they're hardly any different from her "chances against the coach in one set" (which happens to be the middle set). But if instead she plays the sequence c/b/c, then assuming only that she wins the middle set with her 99.9% chance of doing so, then all she has to do is beat the teacher on either of two sets against him. And her chances of beating him on either of two sets are clearly better than her chances against him in just one set.
  
  So it's right for her to play the brother in the middle set. And it's always right for her to do that, as long as the coach is the better player - and c/b/c is therefore her correct choice.
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2381327].message }}
  
  ThomM 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Bill Farnham
  
  Appearently she also has the balls to play tennis...
  
  I'm going with B/C/B (easy/hard/easy), as well.
  
  I knew that:rolleyes:
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  Life: Nature's way of keeping meat fresh
  Getting old ain't for sissy's
  As you are I was, as I am you will be
  You can't fix stupid, but you can always out smart it.
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2381443].message }}
whateverpedia 14 years ago

Alexa,

Your two most recent posts "down here" have been intellectual exercises.

Are you trying to raise the standards of the OT forum?

If so, why :confused:

The denizens will reject any such move.

(All said with tongue in cheek of course).
- Thanks
- 1 reply
Signature

Why do garden gnomes smell so bad?
So that blind people can hate them as well.
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2381879].message }}
- Alexa Smith Banned 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by whateverpedia
  
  Are you trying to raise the standards of the OT forum?
  
  Noooo, I wouldn't presume - just the diversity/spectrum of "off-topic topics".
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2383162].message }}