Hoppo Bumpo (n): A children's game. Played by folding one's arms and hopping on one leg. Aim is to bump opponents, so that they lose their balance. Last person standing wins.


July 17, 2008

Do we have the numbers?



The laundry is festering with mountains of dirty clothes. The house is littered with damp washing struggling to dry indoors. The family is running out of both garments and linen. What to do?

I'm taking a scientific approach and assessing the options. I have just consulted that font of all mathematical knowledge (Google) about probability:

The probability of an event is represented by number in the range from 0 to 1 and is expressed as Pr(A). An impossible event has a probability of 0 and a certain event has a probability of 1. To find the probability of two or more independent events that occur in sequence, find the probability of each event occurring separately and then multiply the probabilities.

Got it.

Case 1
Pr(clean, dry clothes and linen)
= Pr(dirty clothes) x Pr(sufficient motivation to wash clothes) x Pr(rain)
= 1 x 50% x 70%
= 35%

Case 2
Pr(new clothes and linen)
= Pr(sufficient fabric in stash) x Pr(sufficient motivation to sew) x Pr(rain indoors)
= 1 x 1 x 0
= 100%

Conclusion
I think the numbers are speaking for themselves. I'm off to get the sewing machine, so I can sew new sheets and pyjamas.

** My sincere apologies to anyone who is actually mathematically inclined and sees the shocking flaws/fabrication in both my calculations and logic

9 comments:

  1. Cool, that's gotta be the best blog post I've read all day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice maths! I have laundry indoors that desperately needs drying too - it needs to be dry by tomorrow afternoon cos we are flying to New Zealand and wet laundry in a suitcase is not a good idea

    ReplyDelete
  3. Laundry and winter - arghhhhh! Love your creative and mathematical outlook!

    ReplyDelete
  4. :))
    Scientific and proved conclusion!

    althought here is summertime and fires in the forests...(:

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dude..I hope your stash is big enough...cause buying yardage is HARD to dry in the living room after prewashing!!! lol

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love your work. Anything to avoid the house looking like a chinese laundry I say (not that I have anything in particular on chinese laundries) :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh and I forgot to say - thanks for your mummilicious comment to my last post - nice to know we are not alone!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Tremendous post! Made me laugh as I looked at the washing hanging from the ceiling here!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Same situation here.... I didn't think of the sewing machine option, but instead drove to the local laundrette and put it ALL through washing machines and driers. Wasted an entire Saturday afternoon.....and I could have been sewing!!??

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for dropping by! I love hearing what people have to say. Leave a comment if you like.