AS/1853/MATH1853/2

UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS
MATH1853
Assignment 2 Combinations and Probability
Due Date: 16 April 2015 (4pm)
Please submit your assignment to the assignment box (4/F, Run Run Shaw Building)
1. In order to enter into a competition, ten people have to be divided into two groups
of five each. How many dierent divisions are possible?
2. If two fair dice are rolled, what is the probability that the sum of the upturned faces
will equal to 5?
3. Consider the experiment of tossing a fair coin repeatedly and counting the number
of tosses required until the first head appears.
(a) Find the sample space of the experiment.
(b) Find the probability that the first head appears on the k-th toss.
4. Show that if P (A|B) > P (A), then P (B|A) > P (B).
5. Let A and B be events defined in a sample space S. Show that if both P (A) and
P (B) are nonzero, then events A and B cannot be both mutually exclusive and
independent.
6. There are 100 patients in a hospital with a certain disease. Of these, 10 are selected
to undergo a drug treatment that increases the percentage cured rate from 50 percent
to 75 percent. What is the probability that the patient received a drug treatment
if the patient is known to be cured?
7. Suppose it is given that E[X] = 3 and V ar(X) = 2. Find
E[(X + 1)2 ] and V ar(2015 4X).
8. The probability density function of X, the waiting time of a bus (measured in hours),
is given by
2
f (x) = cxe2x for x [0, ) ,
where c is a constant. Find P (X 1).
[Note: you should provide a numerical answer.]