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BrainteasersJane StreetSIG

The country where every family wants a boy

In a certain country every family follows the same rule: keep having children until you have a boy, then stop. Each birth is a boy or a girl with equal probability, independently of everything else.

Someone argues: "Families with girls keep trying, so there will be lots of girls. Families stop as soon as they get a boy, so boys are rare. The population will be mostly girls."

Is that right? In the long run, what is the ratio of boys to girls among all the children born?

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Look at it from the point of view of the births rather than the families. Does the rule change the chance that any particular birth is a boy?

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