[Math] What are the odds of rolling a 1 and a 20 in two d20 dice

diceprobability

So, one of these days a friend of mine rolled two d20 dice and got a $1$ in one of them and a $20$ in the other. I was thinking, what are the odds of this happening?

Best Answer

On a D-20 dice there are 20 possible outcomes. The probability of rolling any particular face of the dice (assuming that it is a fair dice) is ${1}\over{20}$. These events are independent of each other, this means that the outcomes of the dice do not influence each other. To find a particular two dice combination we have to take the probability of the first outcome and multiply it by the probability of the second outcome. $$\frac{1}{20} * \frac{1}{20} = \frac{1}{400}$$ The chance of rolling a one and a 20 is $\frac{1}{400}$. This is actually the same probability as any particular combination of those two dice. For example, rolling a 3 and a 16 would also be a $\frac{1}{400}$ probability.

Since there are two possible ways to get the combination of one and 20, first dice is one and second is 20, or first dice is 20 and second is one. You add the two probabilities together $$\frac{1}{400} + \frac{1}{400} = \frac{2}{400} = \frac{1}{200}$$

This is the final probability of this event.