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    Re: That darned old cocked hat
    From: Peter Fogg
    Date: 2010 Dec 10, 09:23 +1100


    George Huxtable wrote:

    Three separate observations are made, one of each star. By our prior
    condition, the  probability of each being toward or away is 50:50. There is
    no correlation between them. They could have been made by three separate
    observers, each putting his observation into a sealed envelope, to be
    opened together after the event. Then the probability of any combination,
    of the 8 possible, is one in 8. How can it be different?

    George, you don't seem to have grasped John Karl's point.  Once the triangle is so small that it approximates a point then the probability that the fix lies within it approaches zero, since the probability of two points, each with  infinitely small area by definition, coinciding has to be infinitely small.

    Therefore your 75% probability of the fix lying outside the triangle due to random error has to bend towards 100% as the triangle approaches a point.  As I understand what John Karl seems to be saying.
       
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