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Hit the ball hard

Sean Eberhard current-events, teatime-puzzles 2021-06-292021-06-29

Happy Wimbledon. Another teatime puzzle.

Let’s say we have a player with an extremely powerful but inconsistent serve. Half the time she aces, half the time she faults. What is the probability that she wins her service game?

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Published by Sean Eberhard

Pure mathematician particularly interested in algebra, especially group theory, combinatorics, number theory, and too many other things View all posts by Sean Eberhard

Published 2021-06-292021-06-29

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2 thoughts on “Hit the ball hard”

James says:

2021-06-30 at 08:43

hmm, I know the answer if the probability of a fault is 1/sqrt(2) instead of 1/2….. 🙂

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1. Sean Eberhard says:
  
  2021-06-30 at 08:57
  
  Very good. I thought about making that another part of the question
  
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