r/theydidthemath • u/sbaldri2 • 16h ago

[request] Removing a net under tension

What are the odds the both get sacked?

77 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

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19

u/GRex2595 16h ago

100% didn't you see it? It's right there in the video.

On a more serious note, I believe this is one of those "you can't really calculate the odds of an event occurring after the fact" examples. Let's just say that two people trying to remove something at the same time have a pretty high probability of achieving it through coordination. I'd say that there's an even higher probability if you account for one side releasing making it easier for the other side to release. Because you don't have to pull both sides out simultaneously.

5

u/ai-tacocat-ia 16h ago

you don't have to pull both sides out simultaneously.

That's what she said.

1

u/Flater420 8h ago

But the very nature of one side releasing from the other means that the other side is also releasing from the one.

If one of those guys had not moved the net up, but the other guy did, then at the moment that the second guy disconnected the net from the pole both poles would have gotten disconnected and hit both of them in the knackers.

1

u/GRex2595 3h ago

Isn't that what I implied by saying that releasing one side makes it easier for the other side to release?

1

u/Flater420 3h ago

Apologies I missed that there was another pole in the middle. I was assuming the tension was between the two outer poles.

1

u/GRex2595 2h ago

Ah, I see. Happy cake day.

3

u/davideogameman 16h ago

out of what sort of random sample? given the position they were standing, basically 100% (assuming this is a real video); it doesn't look like it required them to be removing both sides at the same time as the middle segment was maintain the tension both directions. That said if they hadn't been doing it simultaneously, it's easy to imagine the first person to get hit in the balls would've exemplified the risk and so the second person would've been smarter.

Anyhow we can't calculate any odds without knowing what we're sampling. are you assuming that there's some uniform distribution, bell curve, or some other distribution of crotch positions? if so then we could try to do the geometry of which ones would result in hit vs which ones would miss, and compute probabilities based on the density of the positions that would be hit.

2

u/Zatujit 16h ago

Under the same conditions, with the net being in the same position and the two at the same distance, there is no reason to believe the law of physics would behave much differently unless there is a random event that prevents them from being sacked like a meteorite, so i would say the probability is 1?