I suppose what has been troubling me is that I agree with the 42% chance of rolling a six with three dice - but then kept thinking If I did this 100 times I should see about 50 dice showing a six - so 50%.
But I realise both of these are true as you are only concerned with the chance of rolling one six. In some attempts you will get two or three sixes which do not matter for the 42% - but will give you your 50 sixes in the example above. The explanation we found at work is below (I don't really get this though :wacko
In one roll, the probability of rolling a 6 is 1/6.
For two rolls, there is a 1/6 probability of rolling a six on the first roll.
If this occurs, we've satisfied our condition. There is a 5/6 probability
that the first roll is not a 6. In that case, we need to see if the second
roll is a 6. The probability of the second roll being a 6 is 1/6, so our
overall probability is 1/6 + (5/6)*(1/6) = 11/36. Why did I multiply the
second 1/6 by 5/6? Because I only need to consider the 5/6 of the time that
the first roll wasn't a 6. As you can see the probability is slightly less
than 2/6.
For three rolls, there is a 1/6 probability of rolling a six on the first
roll. There is a 5/6 probability that the first roll is not a 6. In that
case, we need to see if the second roll is a 6. The probability of the second
roll being a 6 is 1/6, giving us a probability of 11/36. There is a 25/36
probability that neither of the first two rolls was a 6. In that case, we
need to see if the third roll is a 6. The probability of the third roll being
a 6 is 1/6, giving us a probability of 1/6 + (5/6)*(1/6) + (25/36)*(1/6) =
91/216. Again, this is less than 3/6.
The general formula for rolling at least one 6 in n rolls is 1 - (5/6)^n.
Cheers, Chris