Creating a formula via VBA

Anyone know what kinda of statistic function i should be using? The "If" "then" functions??

Okay, so I asked a University professor at what kind of formula I should use to figure this type of issue out and he said this:

In this instance, the intuitive answer is the
correct one. In particular, the probability
that 5 is included in your set of four numbers
given that 6 is included is 3/9 = 1/3.

This can be verified by the calculation

(8 choose 2)/(9 choose 3).

The numerator being the number of ways to select
two numbers from eight (the 5 and 6 being
prescribed) and the denominator being the
number of ways to select three numbers from nine
(the 6 being prescribed). I hope this is
helpful to you. Often the unintuitive solution
is the correct one, but not in this case.

So I was wondering if anyone can help me make a excel macro/script that will do this calculation. =D

bumping for love =)

anyone have a clue what i am talking about?

I do understand what you are asking, but, unfortunately, I didn't take enough statistics classes to get a real grasp of anything more than basic probability calculations. (Aside: I often wish I had taken more statistics classes. This kind of thing is really interesting). This is evidenced by the fact that I barely understood your university professors response.

Perhaps if I understood his notation (8 choose 2)/(9 choose 3), I could understand what he's saying better.

I did a quick google search. I think this is a problem that falls under combinatorials and permutations. Excel has functions for these kinds of things (see Excel help for statistical functions), but I don't know how to put them together to get the solution to the problem. When you figure it out, share with the rest of us so we can all learn.

What hes saying is that with (8 choose 2) I have 10 digits to choose from which I picked 2, so I have 8 numbers to pick from. THe 8 is the 10-2 (the 5 and 6) and the 2 is for the other 2 digits I need to finish the 4 digit event. The denominator (9 choose 3) is the 10 digits minus the one I already have with the 3 other digits i need to finish the 4 digit event. Whew! Stats teachers, they really know how to boggle your mind.

Now that I have a formula down, how can I apply it?

Or rather here is a simpler way to look at this problem:

Is there a way to have excel tell me what number turns up most within each row alongside 6?

A little more Googling and I think the notation (8 choose 2) is how statisticians express combinatorials. So (8 choose 2) would be expressed in Excel as =COMBIN(8,2). That makes implementing the professor's solution fairly simple in Excel. But I don't understand the statistics enough to evaluate the professor's solution, nor do I understand enough to create the formula for a different problem.

If you are having trouble understanding the statistics, I would suggest getting the theory properly understood before worrying as much about how to implement the solution in Excel. At least one of the hits I got on Google was for a stat forum similar to this one. You might try posting this question somewhere like that to find people who understand the stat theory and can explain it to you. Then, if they can't help you implement it in Excel, come back here armed with an understanding of how to get the solution, and we can help figure out how to implement the solution in Excel. It would appear that implementation will primarily involve the COMBIN function.

Is there a way to have excel tell me what number turns up most within each row alongside 6?

Assuming the number selection is random and you go through enough trials or events, all numbers should have equal probability of occuring. If you are looking for a way to figure out what number occurs most in a limited number of trials, that should be doable. I'm not sure exactly how I would approach it, but it would probably consist of several COUNTIF's or SUMPRODUCT's which I could then add up to see which number occurs most frequently with a 6.