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wu :: forums    riddles    general problem-solving / chatting / whatever (Moderators: Eigenray, ThudnBlunder, william wu, towr, SMQ, Icarus, Grimbal)    Willing to pay more => higher chance it is free « Previous topic | Next topic » Pages: 1  Reply Notify of replies Send Topic Print    Author  Topic: Willing to pay more => higher chance it is free  (Read 1089 times) amichail Senior Riddler     Posts: 450 Willing to pay more => higher chance it is free   « on: Apr 20th, 2009, 5:03pm » Quote Modify Instead of charging $X, why not charge $2X with prob 1/2 and $0 with prob 1/2?   More generally, you could let them specify the pay probability p or price $Y >= $X. Given p, have them pay $X/p. Given $Y, make them pay with probability $X/$Y.   http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=569940   IP Logged DropZap - a new kind of block elimination game towr wu::riddles Moderator Uberpuzzler Some people are average, some are just mean.     Gender: Posts: 13730 Re: Willing to pay more => higher chance it is   « Reply #1 on: Apr 21st, 2009, 12:10am » Quote Modify on Apr 20th, 2009, 5:03pm, amichail wrote: Instead of charging $X, why not charge $2X with prob 1/2 and $0 with prob 1/2? Because most if not all people would go somewhere else to buy. Suppose you want to buy a house, would you really take the chance of losing twice its value for nothing?   Nevermind the problem of trust. IP Logged Wikipedia, Google, Mathworld, Integer sequence DB amichail Senior Riddler     Posts: 450 Re: Willing to pay more => higher chance it is   « Reply #2 on: Apr 21st, 2009, 12:16am » Quote Modify on Apr 21st, 2009, 12:10am, towr wrote: Because most if not all people would go somewhere else to buy. Suppose you want to buy a house, would you really take the chance of losing twice its value for nothing?   Nevermind the problem of trust. This would be for small purchases.  Moreover, as mentioned above, you could let them pick p or $Y.   BTW, you will want to bound the variables, say 0.1 <= p <= 1.0 and price $X <= $Y <= $10X. « Last Edit: Apr 21st, 2009, 12:19am by amichail » IP Logged DropZap - a new kind of block elimination game Grimbal wu::riddles Moderator Uberpuzzler     Gender: Posts: 7527 Re: Willing to pay more => higher chance it is   « Reply #3 on: Apr 21st, 2009, 5:33am » Quote Modify People tend to like it the other way round. They pay a fixed amount to get a small chance of getting a lot in return.  That's called a lottery.   But regarding traffic offenses, it is a bit like that.  You don't pay a fine for each and every traffic offense.  You have some chances of paying $0 and some to pay the full fine. « Last Edit: Apr 21st, 2009, 5:34am by Grimbal » IP Logged Pages: 1  Reply Notify of replies Send Topic Print Forum Jump: ----------------------------- riddles -----------------------------  - easy   - medium   - hard   - what am i   - what happened   - microsoft   - cs   - putnam exam (pure math)   - suggestions, help, and FAQ => general problem-solving / chatting / whatever ----------------------------- general -----------------------------  - guestbook   - truth   - complex analysis   - wanted   - psychology   - chinese « Previous topic | Next topic »

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