Challenge #73: Plinko Probabilities

[atcodedog05]

Here is my solution.

[JethroChen]

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[AngelosPachis]

Really enjoyed this one! 

I created an app that allows you to select in which slot the ball would drop in the first row and how many rows the Plinko machine has; subject to that, the app will return you the probability of the ball ending up in each of the 5 holes (or 6 in case the total number of rows is even) .

Output

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Workflow

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Iterative Macro

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[Jonathan-Sherman]

Challenge 73 is done! Knew i'd get there with the iterative macro approach eventually!

Results choosing slot 4 with 8 levels:

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Iterative Macro:

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[Sylvana]

Really a challenge to set up a start. My solution:

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[greggrimmer1]

Would have loved to be able to solve for this with an elegant formulaic approach, but after looking into Pascal's triangle I couldn't work out how to account for the sides of the Plinko board.

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So instead I took a brute force approach: built an iterative macro to model each play / put this inside a batch macro to run 1000 times for each possible starting slot (so 5000 scenarios in all). Final output therefore an approximation of the odds.

The iterative macro reproducing the 50/50 odds at each level, accounting for the sides of the board:


The results / odds of landing in bucket 2 (probably would want to run a few more times for just 1 and 2 to get more precise odds for those)

[A2H]

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[Qiu]

Still intimated by apps.

[AkimasaKajitani]

My solution.

I took the way of simulation at each step.

If the holes are six, I overwrite the hole Number to restrict the range.

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Workflow:

Batch Macro:

Iterative Macro:

Result:

This is one of the most tough challenges. 

[tammybrown_tds]

I peeked at others' solutions before trying this on my own, and liked LordNeilLord's approach.  So I tried to repeat his approach.  The first two rows of my results are different than his, and I can't figure out why.  Spending 1+ hours trying to figure it out is not a great use of my time today.

So here's what I got....about 60% right.

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