Today Puzzle #743
Puzzle No. 743 鈥� Wednesday 20 May 2020
Long seen as annoying creatures that can leave holes in your clothes, new research suggests moths play a vital role as overnight pollinators of a wide range of flowers and plants. If a moth with no pollen flies to a garden with 3 flowers of the same species and after landing on a flower takes 3 further random flights to any of the flowers, what is the probability that all flowers will be cross-pollenated?
Today’s #PuzzleForToday has been set by Dr Shaun Fitzgerald, Fellow of Girton College
Click here for the answer
4/27.
(If the flower on which the moth first lands is ascribed to be flower #1, then there are only 4 journeys possible which result in all flowers being pollenated: 1213, 1231, 1312 and 1321. There is a 1 in 3 chance of the moth landing on any flower for the subsequent 3 journeys, so the probability that all flowers are pollenated is 4 x (1/3)3 = 4/27.)
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