STAT 2104:Probability Theory

Exercise Set # 1
1. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the German mathematician, philosopher, statesman, and one of the supreme
intellects of the seventeenth century, believed that in a throw of a pair of fair dice, the probability of
obtaining the sum 11 is equal to that of obtaining the sum 12. Do you agree with him? Explain.
2. Suppose that 33% of the people have O
+
blood and 7% have O

. What is the probability that the

next president has type O blood?
3. A company has only one position with three highly qualied applicants: RJM, RRB and EBB. However,
because the company has only a few women employees, RRBs chance to be hired is 20% higher than
RJMs and 20% higher than EBBs. Find the probability that RRB will be hired.
4. Let A and B be two events. Prove that P(AB) P(A) +P(B) 1.
5. Two integers m and n are relatively prime if 1 is their only common positive divisor. Thus 8 and
5 are relatively prime, whereas 8 and 6 are not. A number is selected at random from the set of
{1, 2, 3, . . . , 63} . Find the probability that it is relatively prime to 63.
6. A number is selected randomly from the set {1, 2, 3, . . . , 1000} . What is the probability that (a) it is
divisible by 3 but not by 5; and (b) it is divisible neither by 3 nor by 5?
7. From an ordinary deck of 52 cards, we draw cards at random and without replacement until only cards
of one suit are left. Find the probability that the cards left are all spades.
8. The secretary of a college has calculated that from the students who took calculus, physics, and
chemistry last semester, 78% passed calculus, 80% physics, 84% chemistry, 60% calculus and physics,
65% physics and chemistry, 70% chemistry and calculus, and 55% all three. Show that these numbers
are not consistent, and therefore the secretary has made a mistake.
9. Suppose that some individuals in a population produce ospring of the same kind. The ospring of the
initial population are called second generation and so on. If the probability of the entire population
completely dies out by the n
th
generation before producing any ospring is exp

2n
2
+7
6n
2

. What is
the probability that such population survives forever?
10. Consider the experiment of getting a random real number on the interval [0, 1]. Find the probability
that the number taken is (1)
1
2
; (2) greater than
3
4
; and (3) between 0.25 and 0.5.
11. A bus arrives at a station everyday at a random time between 1:00 PM and 1:30PM. What is the
probability that a person arriving at this station at 1:00 PM will have to wait at least 10 mins?
12. A chord AB is randomly selected from the unit circle. Find the probability that the length of AB is
more than

3.
13. How many six-digit numbers are there? How many of them contain the digit 5?
14. In how many dierent ways can 15 oces be painted with four dierent colors?
15. Two fair dice are thrown. What is the probability that the outcome is a 6 and an odd number?
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16. How many divisors does 55,125 have? Hint: 55,125=3
2
5
3
7
2
17. A multiple-choice test has 15 questions, each having four possible answers, of which only one is correct.
If the questions are answered at random, what is the probability of getting all of them right?
18. One of the ve elevators in a building leaves the basement with eight passengers and stops at all of the
remaining oors. If it is equally likely that a passenger gets o at any of these 11 oors, what is the
probability that no two of these eight passengers will get o at the same oor?
19. What is the probability that a random r-digit number (r 3) contains at least one 0, at least one 1,
and at least one 2?
20. Six fair dice are tossed. What is the probability that at least two of them show the same face?
21. A fair die is tossed eight times. What is the probability of exactly two 3s, three 1s, and three 6s?
22. Lee Min Ho has eight guests, two of whom are Jackie and Boy. If the guests will arrive in a random
order, what is the probability that Jackie will not arrive right after Boy?
23. (a) Find the number of distinguishable permutations of the letters MISSISSIPPI.
(b) In how many of these permutations Ps are together?
(c) In how many Is are together?
(d) In how many Ps are together and Is are together?
(e) In random order of the letters MISSISSIPPI, what is the probability that all Ss are together?
24. In drawing nine cards with replacement from an ordinary deck of 52 cards, what is the probability of
three aces of spades, three queens of hearts, and three kings of clubs?
25. A box contains ve blue and eight red balls. Jack and Jill start drawing balls from the box, respectively,
one at a time, at random, and without replacement until a ball is drawn. What is the probability that
Jack draws the blue ball?
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