A roulette wheel in Monte Carlo has 18 even-numbered slots, 18 odd-numbered slots, a slot numbered zero, and a double zero slot. On August 18, 1913, it came up even 26 times in a row. 10 As more and more evens occurred, the proportion of people betting on an odd outcome increased, as they figured it was “due.”
a. Comment on this strategy.
b. Find the probability of 26 events in a row if each slot is equally likely.
c. Suppose that over the past 100 years there have been 1000 roulette wheels, each being used hundreds of times a day. Is it surprising if sometime in the previous 100 years one of these wheels had 26 evens in a row? Explain.