Solve this equation for me

[Zipsnine]

Re: Solve this equation for me

Im only a senoir in high school. Im not worried about interviews yet. But i really dont look forward to writing resumes. They look like there a hastle to do.

[GG_Guru]

Re: Solve this equation for me

Dude you got a 4.0 GPA...who doesn't want to hire a smartass?

I definitely would. Hell that'd be my first choice.

[MrRubix]

Re: Solve this equation for me

Dude you got a 4.0 GPA...who doesn't want to hire a smartass?

Not all 4.0 students are created equal. It'll only help get your foot in the door. If you fail the interview, the number becomes a bit meaningless.

[Zipsnine]

Re: Solve this equation for me

Hey, MrRubix should come up with a really hard algebra 2 problem and see if we can solve it. Like the hardest problem you can think of

[leonid]

Re: Solve this equation for me

How about this method:

Drop the ball from floor 50. If it breaks, start from floor 1 all the way up to floor 49.
If it doesn't break, drop it from floor 75. If it breaks, start from floor 51 all the way up to floor 74.
If it doesn't break here either, drop it from floor 88, and so on..

Expected value of maximum number of drops is roughly 50/2 + 25/4 + 13/8 + 7/16 + 4/32 + 2/64 + 1/128

[GG_Guru]

Re: Solve this equation for me

But there's less chance of you failing if you actually know what you're doing which I doubt you don't because hey, you have A's all across a paper right? And the fact that you deem it as a worthless piece of paper is just ridiculous...but in reality it's probably the only ace up your sleeve and the only chance of ever scoring a job out in the real world, at least, that's what I've been taught.

I'm going to make some burgers.

I'm ****ing starving.

[MrRubix]

Re: Solve this equation for me

@GG_Guru That's not how the interviews for technical jobs work

How about this method:

Drop the ball from floor 51. If it breaks, start from floor 1 all the way up to floor 50.
If it doesn't break, drop it from floor 76. If it breaks, start from floor 52 all the way up to floor 75.
If it doesn't break here either, drop it from floor 87, and so on..

Expected value of maximum number of drops is roughly 50/2 + 25/4 + 13/8 + 7/16 + 4/32 + 2/64 + 1/128

That's like 33 drops or so -- you can do better than this

Hell, I'll give you a better (but incorrect) answer. Say you choose some interval, 10, to use your first sphere. That is, drop at 10, then 20, then 30, etc. If it breaks at 50, say, then use the second sphere and start dropping from 41-49, and you will get the floor that way. So under worst case scenario, you drop the first sphere 10 times to reach floor 100 and then need to drop the second sphere 9 times (91-99), for a minimum of 10+9 = 19... but again, you can do better than this.

[MrRubix]

Re: Solve this equation for me

But there's less chance of you failing if you actually know what you're doing which I doubt you don't because hey, you have A's all across a paper right? And the fact that you deem it as a worthless piece of paper is just ridiculous...but in reality it's probably the only ace up your sleeve and the only chance of ever scoring a job out in the real world, at least, that's what I've been taught.

I'm going to make some burgers.

I'm ****ing starving.

Of course you will do better if you know what you're doing... but there are plenty of gunners (i.e. suckups/studybots) out there with high GPA's that don't know what they're doing and still wind up losing the interview. You'll also find plenty of non-4.0 students who are amazing. Again, GPA isn't everything.

[MrRubix]

Re: Solve this equation for me

Ooooh, I got a really hard one for you, Leonid. This one took me all day to solve:


I have a standard 52-card deck. If I draw a red card, you earn $1. If I draw a black card, you lose $1. Drawn cards are not reinserted into the deck, and you can stop any time. Develop an optimal stopping rule to maximize your expected earnings from this game, and then, what is your expected payout under your stopping rule?

For clarification: You should never have negative earnings, since drawing all cards will ensure +26 - 26 = 0 = no net gain or loss.

[GG_Guru]

Re: Solve this equation for me

Solve this equation for me thread = DOMINATED

Byeeee.

[Dr Tran]

Re: Solve this equation for me

ethiopia

[Jtehanonymous]

Re: Solve this equation for me

For the glass ball thing I'd get a friend to help. Then I'd have them drop the ball on floor 1 as I dropped it from 10. If neither ball broke then I'd move up to floor 20, and my friend could go to 11. In the worst case scenario I'd go 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, and in these ten actions, my friend would be simultaneously at 91 with me. Then together we'd drop 92 and 93 together, 94 and 95 together, until we got to 98 and 99 together. This would take us 14 drops total working together.

Edit: And I just decided that this sucks because if my ball broke at 90 or something, then we'd only have one ball to go up from 81-89. >=/

The maximum here is still 18 though...

[super kid]

Re: Solve this equation for me

Hahahaha. sorry...

[stargroup]

Re: Solve this equation for me

gg_guru as if I couldn't have any less respect for you

you went and proved me wrong

[GG_Guru]

Re: Solve this equation for me

Umm thanks?

I'm honored?

???

?????