Suppose that it is equally likely for a pregnancy to deliver a baby boy as it is to deliver a baby girl.
probability/family
Problem
Suppose that it is equally likely for a pregnancy to deliver a baby boy as it is to deliver a baby girl. Suppose that for a large society of people, every family continues to have children until they have a boy, then they stop having children. After 1,000 generations of families, what is the ratio of males to females?
Show solution
The ratio will be 50-50 in both cases. We are not killing off any fetuses or babies, and half of all conceptions will be male, half female. When a family decides to stop does not affect this fact.