lew@ihuxr.UUCP (07/28/83)
seismo!tiberio (Ty) wonders how he could have failed to see all the ST episodes. I used to watch Perry Mason reruns a lot and formulated the "Perry Mason Problem" - in this case the "Star Trek Problem". It is this: Assume that there are N episodes and that you have an equal chance of seeing any episode every time you watch. How many episodes should you expect to watch before seeing all N of them? The "equal chance" condition is violated if you watch consecutive episodes on the same channel of course, but this is an idealization. The answer can be derived fairly easily if you hit on the right way of approaching it. Incidentally, I saw a pinball game which provided a better realization of the idealized problem. It had seven sockets (which spelled PARAGON) which had to be lit to get a bonus. The chance of getting any socket was nearly random. Lew Mammel, Jr. ihuxr!lew