/sci/ - Science & Math

Hey /sci/.
Making something and need a little help with math. Math is your purview, right?

Anyway, little program to calculate dice probability. x y-sided dice, dropping the z lowest results; what's the average of that setup?
(eg, x=4, y=6, z=1; roll 4 six-sided dice, drop the lowest one.)

Is there a general formula for that? I tried to poke around but I don't think I know how to phrase it properly to get results from a search engine.

My current iteration has the computer run through a given setup a few thousand times to try and empirically simulate the average, but that's a lot more complex than I'd like it to be.

>>6476280
No. You can't just propose complex extra parts of reality and say "well there isn't a complete materialist explanation yet, so it's the default." The default is not knowing, not making up something.

Qualia, souls, mind-aether - whatever - it's all either
a) Cartesian, i.e. real and causally potent and in some way able to interact with the nerves in the brain/body and cause us to type messages about it etc; or
b) Epiphenomenal, i.e. real but not causally potent, in which case it is a pure example of a redundant hypothesis that explains nothing.

The former being the only case of interest, the hypothesis has to explain why we haven't detected any ectoplasm/spirit power/stuff of pure qualia yet. It interacts with biological tissue, for heaven's sake, we should be able to get it to interact with SOMETHING else.

>>6004435
I feel obligated to inform you that /sci/ uses special relativity (when not using some newfangled quantum stuff they claim to understand). I tried to have several talks (typically about FTL and near c travel) only to be stonewalled by people using a single frame of reference.

Oddly enough a black hole is like a time machine. You go in for what to you is a few minutes then come out millions or billions of years later (assuming you survive of course), which from an observer's perspective is you being froze in time (assuming they could see into a black hole in the first place). So it like acts more like badass cryosleep, which while interesting ruined a key part of my book as I am trying to keep it somewhat realistic . Thus the attempted discussion of more plausible FTL and near c systems as I am not certain of somethings, like how fast can a ion drive get a ship before the energy demands get unreasonable even for more advanced power systems. (As for /lit/ they were of no help on the matter citing "it is fiction do what you want")

>>1555766
1- I can inb4, it's to tell people to fuckoff if they're going to say something along the lines of
>lol underage
2- I like science, I was just saying biology is shit tier, but I'm still going to do it.
3- I don't believe I'm and idiot :)
4- I might anyway, I'm bored.
5 - GTFO