Bascule is reading a book.
What is the probability that the first digit of the page he is on is 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5?
a) obtain an expression
b) approximate a numerical value
the solution to part a) is pretty much what
jim lyon posted as an accurate description
of the probabilities.
what im looking for is an expression
in the form of the limit of an infinite sum.
since the proportions are
similar in all 10^x intervals, an expression
in the form of a sum for these intervals will
have a limit as x tends to ∞
this reasoning implies that there exists
a value between 0 and 1 which is the
single correct answer to the question
(probably between 0.8 and 0.9)
in other words, the question is meaningful
because such a value exists.
regarding posting puzzles with solutions or not, i have seen previous puzzles which at the time
of posting did not have a solution, so i thought
it ok to post this after working out the
probabilities involved. if this is not the spirit of these puzzles, delete it and point taken :)
well..
