Note To Zonker: According to my tireless efforts and numerous independent normal variables, on the Tootsie Roll Pop question:

Median number of delicate tongue flicks to get to the center: 278

Extra Ingredients: One pinch of rosy retrospection. Now wait just a moment. ‘Tis not done yet.

Just as k tends to infinity, the distribution of X tends to normality. It follows that the expected value of a random variable having chi-square distribution tends toward variance of 2k. However, the bounds provided by Chebyshev’s inequality cannot, in general (remaining sound for variables of arbitrary distribution), be improved upon. Alternatively, the gamma distribution can be parameterized in terms of a shape parameter, which would permit a more precise calculation, but fuck that.

Heh. You think I’ve got writer’s block? It happens to the best.