Boys or Girls?

A great king looks at the population of his kingdom and decides there are far too many boys.

Therefore, he issues the following decree:

"If a couple gives birth to a boy they must no longer have any children."

"If a couple gives birth to a girl, they must continue to have children until they get a boy and then stop."

With this in mind, what will increase faster, the population of girls or boys?

Assumption : Any time two people have a child, they have an equal chance of having a boy or a girl.


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Boys Neither one Girls

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1 solution

Geoff Pilling
Aug 11, 2017

Since the probability is 50/50, regardless of who has the child, every child that is born has an equal chance of being a boy or a girl. Therefore, the population for both boys and girls would be expected to increase at the same rate \boxed{\text{same rate}} .

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