Conditional probability theory entails beautiful tasks with counterintuitive solutions. In addition to the well-known sibling problem, I will now briefly deal with another example: "I now have two children. One of them is a boy and was born on a Thursday. What is the probability that the other child is also a boy?"

We choose the result space

$$I = \{(J.MO,J.MO), (J.MO,J.DI), (J.MO,J.MI), \cdots, (M.SO,M.FR), (M.SO,M.SA), (M.SO,M.SO)\}$$ with $$|I| = 196.$$ $$|I| = 196.$$

Then

$$\begin{array}{rcl} B & = &\{(J.DO,J.MO), (J.DO,J.DI), (J.DO,J.MI), (J.DO,J.DO), (J.DO,J.FR), (J.DO,J.SA), (J.DO,J.SO),\\ & & (J.DO,M.MO), (J.DO,M.DI), (J.DO,M.MI), (J.DO,M.DO), (J.DO,M.FR), (J.DO,M.SA), (J.DO,M.SO),\\ & & (J.MO,J.DO), (J.DI,J.DO), (J.MI,J.DO), (J.FR,J.DO), (J.SA,J.DO), (J.SO,J.DO),\\ & & (M.MO,J.DO), (M.DI,J.DO), (M.MI,J.DO), (M.DO,J.DO), (M.FR,J.DO), (M.SA,J.DO), (M.SO,J.DO) \}\end{array}$$

with $$|B| = 27$$ and

$$\begin{array}{rcl} A & = &\{(J.DO,J.MO), (J.DO,J.DI), (J.DO,J.MI), (J.DO,J.DO), (J.DO,J.FR), (J.DO,J.SA), (J.DO,J.SO),\\ & &(J.MO,J.DO), (J.DI,J.DO), (J.MI,J.DO), (J.FR,J.DO), (J.SA,J.DO), (J.SO,J.DO)\}\end{array}$$

with $$|A| = 13$$, so

• $$P(A \cap B) = P(A) = \frac{13}{196}$$,
• $$P(B) = \frac{27}{196}$$,
• $$P_B(A) = \frac{P(A \cap B)}{P(B)} = \frac{13/196}{27/196} = \frac{13}{27} \neq \frac{1}{2}$$.

In doing so, we neglect the fact that in some years there are more Thursdays than other days.

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