Noah and His Ark

1. Noah and His Ark David Birnbaum

2. God saw how wicked mankind had become, and decided to wipe mankind off of the Earth. But he decided to give themONE MORE CHANCE

3. He randomly selected 10 humans and give them a test God sent 10 angels disguised as poor people to see if anyone would help them.

4. Only one of the ten people responded to the angel’s request for help, but God knew that 10% of the world was not as kind as this one man, so he did not change his mind; he would still flood the earth. However, one righteous man found favour in God’s eyes. Noah, because of his noble life, was selected by God to build an ark that would hold two of every animal to survive the flood he would send.

5. Not wanting to be alone for his whole trip, Noah asked God if his family would get to live on the ark with him. Of course God said yes- that he could have 27 family members come with him. Noah’s family was very grateful. In a population of five million people, 28 of them, including Noah, were allowed to live on the ark. The eldest of Noah’s brothers said they were extremely lucky, as each of them only had a 1 in 5 million chance of being selected. But Noah’s other brother explained to him that God wouldn’t put Noah on the ark with strangers, so since they have a family of 100, not including Noah, the probability of them being selected was much greater than 1 in 5 million. He then told them that they were still lucky, as the chance of this specific group of 27 people being selected was 27C27 times 73C0 over 100C27, or 1 in 1 917 353 200 780 443 050 763 600

6. God gave Noah very specific instructions, but he allowed him to choose some things. Noah was allowed to choose if he wanted to build the ark with Oak or Maple, but he could not combine the woods. Noah’s son explained to him, after drawing out the cases, that since each wood had a 2/4 chance of being used, that this was a fair way to decide. Noah agreed, and the coin ended up landing on tails twice, so Oak was to be used. Maple Oak Noah did not care which wood he used, so he got his son to flip a coin to decide. His son decided to flip the coin twice, if it was the same both times, they would use Oak, if it was different, Maple. But Noah wanted to make sure this gave each wood an equal chance. First Flip Second Flip Heads Oak Heads Tails Maple Heads Maple Tails Tails Oak

7. Once the ark was built, Noah was instructed to bring two of every animal into the ark, one male and one female. Noah knew this was not a simple task, but it had to get done. When Noah got to the point where he had to select Camels, he did not have to look far. He and his family owned seven of their very own Camels, five males and two females. His youngest daughter, Sara, was very worried, as her favourite Camel, Clarisse, only had a 2 in 7 chance of being selected. But then her mother explained to her that because Clarisse was a girl Camel, she actually had a 1 in 2 chance of being put on the ark; this made her much happier. Noah decided to delay deciding on the female Camel until he could ask God about Clarisse.

8. When it came time to select pigs to go on the ark, Noah’s niece really wanted her pet pig Tommy to be selected. She fed Tommy lots of food, so it wouldn’t need as much food on the ark. Her father explained to her that the pig eating more now would not affect its likelihood to get on the ark. Noah’s nephew Jack was really worried that if Tommy was picked to go on the ark, that his pet lizard Edward wouldn’t be chosen. Jack’s mother told him that Tommy being chosen would not affect if Edward was chosen, they could both be chosen and everyone would be happy. Lucky for the children, Noah spoke to God about their pets coming on the ark, and God allowed Sara’s camel Clarisse, Tommy the pig and Edward the lizard to all come aboard.

9. Once everything with his family was settled, Noah only had one animal left to collect before starting to put all of them on the ark, Earthworms. Since Earthworms are not male or female, he could just randomly select 2 from his bucket. His son Max wanted to know how many possible ways 2 worms could be chosen from the 11 in the bucket. Noah explained that since he had to choose 2 worms, and it did not matter if a worm was chosen first or second, and they all had the same chance of being chosen, that there were 55 possible ways to pick 2 worms. Max found that very cool.

10. It was now finally time to put all of the animals in the ark, starting with the top floor. Noah decided to put the birds on the top floor, one type into each of the 30 rooms. To test his father, Noah’s son Bill asked how manydifferent ways his dad could arrange the birds onthe top floor. Noah explained that he had 30 choices of birds for the first room, 29 for the second and so on until the last bird went in the last room, this came out to be over 265 nonillion, or over 265 thousand billion billion billion ways to arrange the birds. Noah then discovered that he actually only had 27 rooms on that top floor, and that the other three would have to stay in his room, so Bill asked now how many different ways the birds could be placed into the rooms. Noah told him that he still had 30 choices for the first room, 29 for the second and so on, but this time he would stop when he filled 27 rooms, and had three birds left over. So now there were only 44 nonillion ways to arrange the birds, or 44 thousand billion billion billion.

11. Noah managed to fill most of the ark after that point without problem, and when he reached the bottom floor of the ark he had 8 rooms remaining, and 8 pairs of animals, which was great. The problem he had however was that he needed to keep the tigers next to the lions, because the females had become friendly, as well he could not put either of those animals next to the deer, for fear of them being eaten. Noah, being a former math professor, knew how to find out how many ways he could have that. Since he had 8 pairs of animals, but two pairs had to stay together, he counted them as one pair, as if he had 7 “pairs of animals.” Since he had 7 choices of the first animal, 6 for the second and so on, he knew there were 5040 ways to arrange the animals, but he had to multiply that by 2 because the tigers could be on the left or the right of the lions, making 10080 different ways to arrange the animals. Noah then had to remove all of the options in which the lions or the tigers were next to the deer. He did this by treating the lions, tigers and deer as 1 “pair of animals.” He now had 6 “animals,” which could be arranged in 720 different ways. He had to multiply that by 2! and 2!, because there were 2! ways that the lions and tigers could be next to the deer, and 2! ways the lions and tigers could be arranged. So Noah knew that the number of ways to organize the bottom floor was 10080 – 2880, or 7200 ways.

12. Noah put in the tigers, lions, polar bears, moose, beavers, caribou, deer and loons and boarded the ark with his family. They closed the ark doors just in time to here the first drops of rain hit the deck.

13. The End