Statistics

Problem Statement for "BeatTheStar"

Problem Statement

Beat the Star is a TV game show franchise started by the German original Schlag den Raab. In the game show a candidate attempts to beat a celebrity in a series of games. There are N games, numbered 1 to N. Each game has a winner and a loser. The winner of game X is awarded X points. The winner of the game show is the player (either the celebrity or the candidate) whose point total at the end is bigger.

In this problem we will make two simplifying assumptions (in comparison to the actual show):

  • N will be such that the total number of points is odd, so that we do not have to handle ties.
  • We will assume that all games always get played, even if the final winner is already known by that point.

You are soon going to take part in the game show as the candidate. The celebrity you'll compete against happens to be your twin. When trying to find an edge that would help you in the game, you watched many episodes of the show and you realized that the early games matter even less than it seems. Hence, you could save your strength by giving up some of the early games with the hope that this will help you beat your twin in the later games that are worth more points.

In this problem we want you to analyze how much each of the individual games matters. More precisely, we ask the following question: Assume that in each game each player wins with probability 50 percent. What is the probability that at the end game number G actually matters? (Given the full results of the show, game G matters if changing the winner of G would change the winner of the show.)

Definition

Class:
BeatTheStar
Method:
doesItMatter
Parameters:
int, int
Returns:
double
Method signature:
double doesItMatter(int N, int G)
(be sure your method is public)

Notes

  • The return value must have an absolute error at most 1e-9.

Constraints

  • N will be between 1 and 100, inclusive.
  • N will be such that the total number of points in the show is odd.
  • G will be between 1 and N, inclusive.

Examples

  1. 2

    1

    Returns: 0.0

    There are two games: game 1 awards one point and game 2 awards two. In this setting, game 1 does not matter at all: the winner of game 2 wins the show.

  2. 5

    5

    Returns: 0.625

    If there are five games, game 5 matters quite often so winning it is crucial.

  3. 5

    1

    Returns: 0.125

    Game 1 matters much less.

  4. 1

    1

    Returns: 1.0

  5. 2

    2

    Returns: 1.0

  6. 5

    2

    Returns: 0.125

    Perhaps quite surprisingly, even though game 2 is worth twice as many points as game 1, in this particular format their importance is exactly the same.

  7. 9

    7

    Returns: 0.328125

  8. 98

    98

    Returns: 0.1393180923823675

  9. 98

    47

    Returns: 0.06629019390986395

  10. 98

    1

    Returns: 0.001407211300109263

  11. 97

    97

    Returns: 0.1400314813668493

  12. 97

    93

    Returns: 0.13414205765996984

  13. 97

    42

    Returns: 0.06012446724542525

  14. 97

    2

    Returns: 0.0028577070638482064

  15. 90

    16

    Returns: 0.025564159721327685

  16. 69

    34

    Returns: 0.08084554452270648

  17. 6

    1

    Returns: 0.0625

  18. 6

    2

    Returns: 0.1875

  19. 98

    9

    Returns: 0.012665942956824027

  20. 98

    79

    Returns: 0.11189929899765849

  21. 98

    75

    Returns: 0.1061636534901081

  22. 70

    67

    Returns: 0.1574558190463667

  23. 97

    40

    Returns: 0.05725134209699907

  24. 98

    50

    Returns: 0.07054288855858354

  25. 98

    97

    Returns: 0.13786704782636808

  26. 66

    1

    Returns: 0.0025311834339537143

  27. 98

    93

    Returns: 0.1320722598739415

  28. 98

    45

    Returns: 0.06345717488146932


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