7) Suppose Ram and Rahim have 4 common friends. Given that each common friend gives Ram and Rahim an independent probability 0.2 of forming
a link, what is the probability that there will exist a link between Ram and Rahim?
0 0.50
0.64
0.59
O 0.80
Answers
Editor’s Note (7/29/16): An earlier version of this story contained several biographical inaccuracies and did not give Jim Papadopoulos a chance to respond to the comment about his ability to finish things. Michael Papadopoulos moved his family to the United States more than a decade before taking a job at Oregon, not in 1967. Jim Papadopoulos spent a whole academic year at Oregon before starting at MIT. He did not write to bike companies asking for work until the 1990s. His time at the US Geological Survey was part of an internship, not a full-time job. The e-mail list he moderated was also founded by him, and is called Hardcore Bicycle Science. He has actually published three first-author papers, but just one related to bicycle science. He was also not given a chance to respond to a comment about his ability to finish things.