combonations?

[spaceman10]

I have 16 'events' which all have 2 possible outcomes. I am allowed to "box" (choose both outcomes in 4 events) for every guess. How many guesses will I need to take in order to cover all of my bases and correctly choose the outcome?

 

[pka]

I have 16 'events' which all have 2 possible outcomes. I am allowed to "box" (choose both outcomes in 4 events) for every guess. How many guesses will I need to take in order to cover all of my bases and correctly choose the outcome?

I taught probability and set theory for thirty years. But I must tell you that I have absolutely no idea what any of that could possibly mean.

What in the world are you asking?
Please give us an example of a situation about which you are asking.

 

[spaceman10]

For the 16 events I have to try to correctly choose the right outcome for each one. each event has two possible outcomes which have a 50% chance of being right. for every guess i make i am allowed to choose both outcomes for only 4 events (i still have to actually pick 12 events still). i am wondering how many guesses i will have to make until no matter what i will have every events outcome correctly chosen

 

[spaceman10]

for an example i'll use the numbers 1 and 2
event 1- 1 or 2
event 2- 1 or 2
event 3- 1 or 2
event 4- 1 or 2
event 5- 1 or 2

and so on to event 16.
for the first 4 events i am allowed to 'box' the answer, in other words i get a freebie because i can choose both outcomes. now obviously i am not going to randomly pick every outcome correctly on the first try. so in my next try i would 'box' the first three events and the 5th event. then the next would be the first 3 and the 6th. so i am wondering at how many times would i have to do this to ensure that one of the guesses is correct