HW10

Bets

Smith is in jail and has 1 dollar; he can get out on bail if he has 8 dollars. A guard agrees to make a series of bets with him. If Smith bets A dollars, he wins A dollars with probability .4 and loses A dollars with probability .6. Find the probability that he wins 8 dollars before losing all of his money if:

Equations:

f<-function(i)
{
p <- .6
q <- .4
N<-8
iw <- round((1-(q/p)^i),2)
nw <- round((iw/(1-(q/p)^N)),2)
l<- 1-iw
pa<-c(iw,nw,l)
}
a<-f(1)

Bets 1 dollar each time (timid strategy).

\(\color{red}{\text{The probability he wins \$8 before losing if he bets \$1 is 0.34}}\)

He bets, each time, as much as possible but not more than necessary to bring his fortune up to 8 dollars (bold strategy).

\(\color{red}{\text{The probability he wins \$8 before losing if he bets as much as possible is 0.33}}\)

Which strategy gives Smith the better chance of getting out of jail?

\(\color{red}{\text{The best strategy is to bet \$1 at a time. Below shows probability of winning \$8 is slighly higher per .01}}\)

sapply(seq(0,1, by=.01), f)
##      [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6] [,7] [,8] [,9] [,10] [,11] [,12] [,13]
## [1,]    0    0 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.03 0.03  0.04  0.04  0.04  0.05
## [2,]    0    0 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.03 0.03  0.04  0.04  0.04  0.05
## [3,]    1    1 0.99 0.99 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.97 0.97  0.96  0.96  0.96  0.95
##      [,14] [,15] [,16] [,17] [,18] [,19] [,20] [,21] [,22] [,23] [,24]
## [1,]  0.05  0.06  0.06  0.06  0.07  0.07  0.07  0.08  0.08  0.09  0.09
## [2,]  0.05  0.06  0.06  0.06  0.07  0.07  0.07  0.08  0.08  0.09  0.09
## [3,]  0.95  0.94  0.94  0.94  0.93  0.93  0.93  0.92  0.92  0.91  0.91
##      [,25] [,26] [,27] [,28] [,29] [,30] [,31] [,32] [,33] [,34] [,35]
## [1,]  0.09   0.1   0.1   0.1  0.11  0.11  0.11  0.12  0.12  0.13  0.13
## [2,]  0.09   0.1   0.1   0.1  0.11  0.11  0.11  0.12  0.12  0.14  0.14
## [3,]  0.91   0.9   0.9   0.9  0.89  0.89  0.89  0.88  0.88  0.87  0.87
##      [,36] [,37] [,38] [,39] [,40] [,41] [,42] [,43] [,44] [,45] [,46]
## [1,]  0.13  0.14  0.14  0.14  0.15  0.15  0.15  0.16  0.16  0.16  0.17
## [2,]  0.14  0.15  0.15  0.15  0.16  0.16  0.16  0.17  0.17  0.17  0.18
## [3,]  0.87  0.86  0.86  0.86  0.85  0.85  0.85  0.84  0.84  0.84  0.83
##      [,47] [,48] [,49] [,50] [,51] [,52] [,53] [,54] [,55] [,56] [,57]
## [1,]  0.17  0.17  0.18  0.18  0.18  0.19  0.19  0.19  0.20  0.20  0.20
## [2,]  0.18  0.18  0.19  0.19  0.19  0.20  0.20  0.20  0.21  0.21  0.21
## [3,]  0.83  0.83  0.82  0.82  0.82  0.81  0.81  0.81  0.80  0.80  0.80
##      [,58] [,59] [,60] [,61] [,62] [,63] [,64] [,65] [,66] [,67] [,68]
## [1,]  0.21  0.21  0.21  0.22  0.22  0.22  0.23  0.23  0.23  0.23  0.24
## [2,]  0.22  0.22  0.22  0.23  0.23  0.23  0.24  0.24  0.24  0.24  0.25
## [3,]  0.79  0.79  0.79  0.78  0.78  0.78  0.77  0.77  0.77  0.77  0.76
##      [,69] [,70] [,71] [,72] [,73] [,74] [,75] [,76] [,77] [,78] [,79]
## [1,]  0.24  0.24  0.25  0.25  0.25  0.26  0.26  0.26  0.27  0.27  0.27
## [2,]  0.25  0.25  0.26  0.26  0.26  0.27  0.27  0.27  0.28  0.28  0.28
## [3,]  0.76  0.76  0.75  0.75  0.75  0.74  0.74  0.74  0.73  0.73  0.73
##      [,80] [,81] [,82] [,83] [,84] [,85] [,86] [,87] [,88] [,89] [,90]
## [1,]  0.27  0.28  0.28  0.28  0.29  0.29  0.29  0.29  0.30  0.30  0.30
## [2,]  0.28  0.29  0.29  0.29  0.30  0.30  0.30  0.30  0.31  0.31  0.31
## [3,]  0.73  0.72  0.72  0.72  0.71  0.71  0.71  0.71  0.70  0.70  0.70
##      [,91] [,92] [,93] [,94] [,95] [,96] [,97] [,98] [,99] [,100] [,101]
## [1,]  0.31  0.31  0.31  0.31  0.32  0.32  0.32  0.33  0.33   0.33   0.33
## [2,]  0.32  0.32  0.32  0.32  0.33  0.33  0.33  0.34  0.34   0.34   0.34
## [3,]  0.69  0.69  0.69  0.69  0.68  0.68  0.68  0.67  0.67   0.67   0.67