Class Activity

Roulette revisited

Previously, we consider the following gambling scenario:

• A roulette wheel has 38 slots numbered 00, 0, and 1–36. Two are green, 18 are red, and 18 are black.
• If a gambler bets based on color, the return on a $1 bet is $2
• A gambler has $50, and will continuously bet $1 on red until they double their money (have $100) or lose the money they came with
• What is the probability the gambler doubles their money?

Here is an R simulation to estimate the probability:

set.seed(279)

nsim <- 1000
results <- rep(0, nsim)
wheel <- c(rep("green", 2), rep("black", 18), rep("red", 18))

for(i in 1:nsim){
  money <- 50 # starting money

  while(money > 0 && money < 100){
    spin <- sample(wheel, size = 1)
    if(spin == "red"){
      money <- money + 1
    } else {
      money <- money - 1
    }
  }
  
  results[i] <- money == 100
}

mean(results)

## [1] 0.008

1. Re-write this simulation in Python. In addition to the material we have covered so far, you will need to look up a couple new Python tools, such as setting a seed, and if...else... statements.

ChatGPT

A valuable tool for translating code from one language to another is ChatGPT. This can be helpful when you are learning a new language, because it can help you explore fundamental syntax and functions. However, be careful: if you don’t know a language well, it can be hard to check whether ChatGPT’s answer is reasonable!

2. Ask ChatGPT to translate the R code above into Python. How do the results compare to your translation in question 1?