Question

You encounter an alien species that counts in base 12 (fortunately

they share the same language, alphabet and numerals). They ask to play a game with you where you must correctly guess the first digit of the floor area of their spaceship measured in florps (a unit of which you have no knowledge). You guess 1. What is the probability that you are correct to the nearest 2 decimal points (in base 10 this time)?

Answer 1

In a base 12 system, assuming each of the 11 possible first digits (1-9 plus two additional digits) of the spaceship's floor area is equally likely, the probability of guessing the first digit correctly is 1 out of 11, which is approximately 9.09% in base 10.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question presented is one of probability, asking us to calculate the chance of guessing the first digit of an alien spaceship's floor area correctly, when measured in an unfamiliar unit called florps. Since the aliens count in base 12, there are 12 possible digits that could be the first digit of the measurement (0-9 plus two additional symbols specific to their numeral system). However, the first digit cannot be 0 because then it wouldn't be the first digit. So, there are really only 11 valid choices for the first digit. Assuming that each digit is equally likely to be the first digit, which is a typical assumption in such probability problems unless stated otherwise, the probability of guessing the digit correctly is 1 out of 11.

To express this probability as a percent in decimal base 10, you divide 1 by 11 and then multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage. The calculation yields approximately 9.0909%, which, when rounded to the nearest two decimal points, is 9.09%.

Answer 2

You have approximately an 8.33 percent chance of correctly guessing the first digit of the floor area of the alien spaceship measured in base 12 as '1'.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is about determining the probability that the first digit of the floor area of an alien spaceship is '1', assuming the aliens count in base 12. In base 12, the digits range from 0 to B (with A being the equivalent of 10 in base 10, and B being 11).

Since the first digit could be any of these 12 possibilities (0 to B), and you guess '1', the chance of guessing it correctly by random chance is 1 out of 12.

Now, to express this probability in base 10, we convert 1/12 into a decimal. 1 divided by 12 gives us approximately 0.0833. Thus, your chance of being correct is about 8.33 percent to two decimal places.