Troll

Wally banged his head on the table at the Mountain. For some reason, Statistics was evading him this evening. He didn't even understand why he had to take the class. Calculus, sure. Statistics was stupid.

M'gann and Connor had gone out for the night, so they couldn't help him. Artemis said she had a family thing to go to, so she wasn't there either. Robin was a freshman, so he couldn't really help either.

Robin chose that moment to walk in the room. "Why are you denting the table, Wally?"

"I'm not denting the table! I'm trying to do my Statistics homework!"

Robin laughed. "Statistics is easy."

Wally glanced up at him. "You've done Stats?"

"Yeah, it was part of Batman's training."

"So you can help me with my homework?"

Robin looked as if he was going to say no, but a grin grew across his face. "Sure, why not?"

Wally motioned for him to take a seat. "So, 'If a die is rolled once, what is the probability that it will show an even number?'"

"Didn't your teacher explain how to do this?" Robin asked.

"I missed that day because of a mission, so I have to teach myself."

Robin's grin managed to grow. "Then I'll teach you!"

He pulled out a die from his belt and handed it to Wally. Wally looked at him, confused by the point of the die.

"Probability is calculated in percentages. You throw the die one hundred times and record how many even and odd numbers you get. Then you've got your percentage!"

"I thought there was something about putting the number of results you want over the number of total possible results."

"Sure, if you want to get inexact answers you aren't sure about. This way is more scientific."

Wally perked up at the word 'scientific'. "So you're saying if I do it this way, it's a scientific test?"

Robin nodded. "I'll see you later, Wally."

He left, cackling to himself. Wally had missed the whole point of determining probability. It was supposed to give an approximate answer without a test.

Wally spent the rest of the night running tests to complete his homework. The next day at school, Mr. Kehrt, Wally's teacher, checked his answers and gave him an F.

After class, Wally walked up. "Why did you fail my homework? I did it the right way!"

"Wally, the probability that a dice will land on an even number is not 58%. It's three, the number of right outcomes, over six, the number of total possible outcomes. That would be 50%."

Wally's jaw dropped as he realized Robin had been messing with him. He had been right on how to solve the problems after all!

"Dick," he growled, angry with the boy.

Mr. Kehrt looked up at him, shocked. "Excuse me?"

Wally's eyes grew wide as he realized how that could be taken. "Crap."


Happy Birthday to weathergirl17248! I'm getting ready for the AP Stats test, so hence the theme of the chapter. If anyone else wants a chapter, just shoot me a message.

Have a conundrumic day,

Shadow