Originally Posted by
accountinquestion
I'm guessing no one will be able to answer this but maybe Tableplay. He seems to be the best at high-level math. I can't really discuss where this is applicable but figured it might be interesting to discuss?
So there is a bowl with an undisclosed number of tickets. These tickets each have a number assigned (but random - not a series). When a ticket is drawn the number is announced on the ticket and the ticket is placed BACK in the bowl. This process is repeated for 100 times. You have results like - 1 number 3 times, 3 numbers 2 times, and 91 numbers that were drawn exactly once.
So how do I go backwards from these numbers to estimate how many tickets are in the bowl?
If I was to figure this out - I would write a sim to try various amounts of tickets - then average results and find the one closest to the sample I took during the drawing. For a reasonable programmer these little toy games are really simple to write. It is pretty much my go to solution anytime I've tried to figure out something like this.
Reply With Quote