My internet marketing consultant Donny recently suggested I should build blog readership synergy using rewarded interactive content. I hope that means somebody hacked Donny's email, because the last time he started talking like that we had to take him down to the Lino Lakes Urgent Care and get his noggin MRIed. Fortunately, they found nothing (zing!).
Still, I decided to have at it. The results you see before you, or will after the jump.
Today's contest, if you haven't sussed it from the title, is math based. No -- come back! There's more! The question has missing information which you must procure by some means, say, by using the thing you're currently staring at. Part scavenger hunt, part math. All fun.
The contest winner gets, um, something. Let's see. A $10 Amazon gift card! (It's a code I email to you, so it's not like you have to provide me your secret identity.) Good for any Amazon product. A math book, for example, explaining how to win fat cash prizes on the Interwebs.
Let's move on to the question, after which I will provide the contest rules.
Suppose the average inconsiderate movie-going rat bastard receives 10 text messages per day, each of which upon arriving on their iThing (which they carry with them at all times) plays a sample from Shrieking Teenage Harpy at maximum volume. What is the probability of enjoying a screening of Anna Kareninna (starring dreamy hunk Jude Law!) uninterrupted by this ringtone if a crowd of three attends the show? Assume the assumptions of the Poisson distribution are applicable (wink, wink).
Contest Rules
In essence, playing entails emailing me a number between zero and one. Simple enough. However, we should establish some ground rules, because without rules there is anarchy:
1) Once you think you have a solution, email it to labkittycontest at gmail dot com. (You'll need to convert that into the real address, which is also part of the contest I guess.) You don't have to show your work, but doing so might convince me you're right and I'm wrong if our answers differ. Also, you need to give me some kind of a name in your email so if you win I can write ...the winner is blerg! when I update the post, where "blerg" is your name and you won. It doesn't have to be your real name, just something I can use.
2a) If you are the first person to email me the correct answer, you win! I will email you the gift certificate code. If the answer you submit is wrong (or correct but too late), I'll try to inform you of that, but if I get overwhelmed by thousands of submissions then I might not be able to respond to each of them individually.
2b) I suppose we should put a time limit on the proceedings. (The last contest lasted over a year. Heck, we'll probably all be dead in a year, especially if what's-his-name gets elected.) So, what say we give it a week. If you want a shot at that sweet gift card goodness, email your answer by the end of business day, May 29th, 2015 (5 PM EST).
3) It's possible you might be working on the solution when in fact someone has already submitted a correct answer. I suppose that's the chance you take. (Why not just run this through the comments? you may be asking. Donny says people get weirded out by the thought of putting their email address in a blog comment. Ergo, submission via email)
4) You may work alone, in pairs, or team up across the globe. Perhaps some of your gang provides charismatic Google-fu, while the others are steeped in the mathogonical arts. Think: McNamera and Kennedy, Quasimodo and Jasmine, Billy Zoom and Exene. However, the prize goes to one winning submission, so you'll have to figure out how to divvy up the winnings amongst yourselves on your own.
5) You should probably only submit once. Or not. I don't know. It's not like I'm going to buy an etherwonk sniffer to foil your efforts at ISP spoofing. For Cat's sake, it's supposed to be a little game, not a root canal.
6) I'll post the solution in a future post.
7) Have fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment