A single alien lands on Earth. Every day after that, each alien on Earth undergoes a transformation, which could be any of the four equally likely events: (a) the alien dies, (b) the alien does nothing, (c) the alien replicates itself (2 aliens total), (d) the alien replicates itself twice (3 aliens total). With bad luck the alien race might die out quickly. But with good luck the alien race might survive indefinitely. What is the probability the alien race eventually dies out and goes extinct? This video presents a solution to this problem, which has been asked as a technical job interview question.

Blog post: http://wp.me/p6aMk-4Sm

This puzzle was emailed to me by Anand Gautam. It has been asked as a job interview question in technical jobs.

Math StackExchange
http://math.stackexchange.com/....questions/1044959/pr

Analytics Vidhya (See problem 10, also includes a proof)
https://www.analyticsvidhya.co....m/blog/2016/07/20-ch

Branching process (statistics) Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branching_process

Math notes on branching (more technical)
https://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~....gravner/MAT135B/mate

Thanks to Patrons!
Kyle
Brian M. Mooney
Shrihari Puranik

If you like my videos, you can support me at Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/mindyourdecisions

Connect on social media. I update each site when I have a new video or blog post, so you can follow me on whichever method is most convenient for you.

My Blog: http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/preshtalwalkar
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages..../Mind-Your-Decisions
Google+: https://plus.google.com/108336....608566588374147/post
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/preshtalwalkar/
Tumblr: http://preshtalwalkar.tumblr.com/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/preshtalwalkar/
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/mindyourdecisions

Newsletter (sent about 2 times a year): http://eepurl.com/KvS0r

My Books

"The Joy of Game Theory" shows how you can use math to out-think your competition. (rated 4/5 stars on 23 reviews) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1500497444

"The Irrationality Illusion: How To Make Smart Decisions And Overcome Bias" is a handbook that explains the many ways we are biased about decision-making and offers techniques to make smart decisions. (rated 5/5 stars on 1 review) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1523231467/

"Math Puzzles Volume 1" features classic brain teasers and riddles with complete solutions for problems in counting, geometry, probability, and game theory. Volume 1 is rated 4.5/5 stars on 11 reviews. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1517421624/

"Math Puzzles Volume 2" is a sequel book with more great problems. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1517531624/

"Math Puzzles Volume 3" is the third in the series. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1517596351/

"40 Paradoxes in Logic, Probability, and Game Theory" contains thought-provoking and counter-intuitive results. (rated 4.9/5 stars on 7 reviews) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1517319307/

"The Best Mental Math Tricks" teaches how you can look like a math genius by solving problems in your head (rated 4.7/5 stars on 3 reviews) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/150779651X/

"Multiply Numbers By Drawing Lines" This book is a reference guide for my video that has over 1 million views on a geometric method to multiply numbers. (rated 5/5 stars on 1 review) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1500866148/