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De Méré's Dice Problem
the gamble that started probability
A gambler, the Chevalier de Méré, bet on rolling at least one 6 in 4 rolls of a die, and won more often than he lost. He then bet on rolling at least one double 6 in 24 rolls of two dice, reasoning it was the same bet scaled up. It kept losing. Why? In 1654, Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat worked it out in letters, helping to found probability theory.
Source: A classic puzzle, retold by INFINITE SUM and fact-checked against our curated notes
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