Dear UseRs
 
I would like to show my students how to use "resampling" to solve the
following simple problem:
 
If a family has two children of which one is a boy, what is the
probability that the other child is also a boy.
The answer is (obviously) 1/3, and can be show easily using the usual
methods.
But I would like to get the students to think of resampling, by doing
the following:
Flip two coins repeatedly, denoted 0 and 1 (1 for boy, say). Discard
those pairs that both contain 0.
>From those left over, count how many pairs are (1,1).
Divide this number by the number available to choose from (i.e. all
pairs, except (0,0)).
This will then give 1/3 (more or less of course).
 
Can somebody help me to code this efficiently, or elegantly (and
smartly) in R, without loops etc.
It is intended for first year students that are only starting to learn
about statistics (or probability theory), and R of course.
 
Thank you for your time.
Regards
Jacob
 
 
 
 
Jacob L van Wyk
Department of Statistics
University of Johannesburg, APK
P O Box 524
Auckland Park 2006
South Africa
Tel: +27 11 489 3080
Fax: +27 11 489 2832
 
 

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