Rolling 2 10 sided dice, discarding one

[Steve4516]

Hey folks, first time posting here. I'll do my best to make my question legible, but math isn't my forte, so please forgive me if I use incorrect terms or what have you.

Ok, so I know the average roll on a 10 sided die should be 5.5, but what would the average roll be if you instead rolled 2 10 sided dies and discarded the higher number?

I've been able to logic out that this should double the frequency of 1's while dropping 10s down to 1% (I think) but that's about as far as my brain will take me, and I still have no idea what the actual average would be.

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to read this, and know that any help is appreciated!

 

[tkhunny]

Hey folks, first time posting here. I'll do my best to make my question legible, but math isn't my forte, so please forgive me if I use incorrect terms or what have you.

Ok, so I know the average roll on a 10 sided die should be 5.5, but what would the average roll be if you instead rolled 2 10 sided dies and discarded the higher number?

I've been able to logic out that this should double the frequency of 1's while dropping 10s down to 1% (I think) but that's about as far as my brain will take me, and I still have no idea what the actual average would be.

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to read this, and know that any help is appreciated!

Well, how did you get 5.5 for one 10-sided die? Add up all the possibilities and divide by how many there are.

(1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10)/10 = 55/10 = 5.5

Do the same thing with a 10x10 grid. You just have 100 things to add up.

Let's see what you get!

Note: Of course, there are more theoretically significant ways to go about it. However, spreadsheets are wonderful things.