There is a bag with balls numbered 1 to 9. Two players take turns at randomly taking a ball from the bag. If a player gets three balls that sum fifteen, he wins. Getting fifteen with more or less balls doesn't count.

What are the odds of the first player winning? Of a draw?

If you consider a magic 3x3 square, getting 15 with 3 balls is the same as getting three in line in the magic square. I have been doing numbers with the square, but my final results are different from those shown here. Of course, that isn't a final, definitive, opinion, for I'm not still sure about my numbers... (and, by the way, I feel that if I do the numbers again, I'll get new, different results!)

Posted by e.g. on 2005-03-28 00:33:51