
So, let’s suppose you know the answers to the first 10 questions, and randomly guess at the final five. The next five questions (6–10) are harder, but are the sort of general-knowledge questions that people who know a lot of trivia often know. What’s the probability that you win the million dollars?ģ. So, let’s assume you get those first five correct, and then randomly guess at the remaining 10. (One of my first five questions when I was on the show was: “Which of the following instruments do you have to blow into to play? (A) Trumpet (B) Drum (C) Guitar (D) Triangle”.) The first five questions are pretty easy - they’re designed to help the contestant relax and get warmed up. What’s the probability that you win the million dollars?Ģ. Suppose you randomly guess at each of the 15 questions.

We’ll be walking through the solutions in the next section!ġ. You can stop reading and work through the questions at any time. Here are some questions for you to think about.

As soon as the contestant answers a question incorrectly, the game is over. The contestant must answer 15 of these questions correctly, one at a time, in order to win the million dollars. The game on WWTBAM is a series of multiple-choice questions that each have four possible answers (A,B,C,D).

Alas, I didn’t win $1,000,000, but I did pretty well and had a lot of fun.īut how likely was it that I could have won the million? Let’s explore the math behind the game! Rules of the Game In November 1999, I was a contestant on the hit TV game show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” (WWTBAM).
