What exactly is Finite Math?

Friar Tuck

Finite Mathematics is the study of linear equations, systems of linear equations, matrices, matrix applications, sets and counting, probability, statistics, and the mathematics of finance. If you are at a party with 25 people, do you think it is likely that two of the people at the party have the same birthday? If someone bet you {$10} that everyone had different birthdays, should you take the bet? What if there were 50 people, or 20?? This is finite mathematics question. More generally, Finite Mathematics is concerned with discrete events: tossing a {coin;} picking a card from a deck of {cards;} amortizing a debt with monthly {payments;} etc. Many interesting questions {arise;} this is the stuff of day-to-day life. The surprising fact is that if there are at least 23 people at the party, it is more likely that two people do have the same birthday than not. In particular, if there are 30 people present, the probability is about 0.7 that at least two people have the same birthday. http://home.ku.edu.tr/~wfreedman/math101.htm Apr 14 03, 7:10 AM