Homework 10 Solutions (Section 12.

2)

December 4, 2013

P (Ac ) = 1 P (A)
P (A B) = P (A) + P (B) P (A B)
 
n
n!
=
k
k!(n k)!
0.1

Exercise 4

Determine the sample space for the experiment. An urn contains six balls
numbered 1-6 and the experiment consists of selecting ve balls simultaneously
without replacement.
After selecting ve balls, that means one ball isn't selected. Thus the sample
space would be the following:
= {{2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, {1, 3, 4, 5, 6}, {1, 2, 4, 5, 6}, {1, 2, 3, 5, 6}, {1, 2, 3, 4, 6}, {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}}.

Any one of these choice of ve balls can occur when selecting ve balls simultaneously without replacement.
0.2

Exercise 8

= {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, A = {1, 3, 5}, and B = {1, 2, 3}. Are A and B disjoint?
No, the sets A and B have an event in common. Namely, their intersection
A B = {3}.
0.3

Exercise 10

= {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, P (1) = 0.1, P (2) = 0.2, and P (3) = P (4) = 0.05. Furthermore, A = {1, 3, 5} and B = {2, 3, 4}. Find P (A) and P (B).
We deduce from the probabilities given, that P (5) = 0.6. Thus P (A) =
P (1) + P (3) + P (5) = 0.75 and P (B) = P (2) + P (3) + P (4) = 0.3.

0.4

Exercise 12

= {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, P (1) = 0.1, P (2) = 0.2, and P (3) = P (4) = 0.05. Furthermore, A = {1, 3, 5} and B = {2, 3, 4}. Find P (A B).
A B = {1, 3, 5} {2, 3, 4} = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} = . Thus P (A B) = P () = 1.
0.5

Exercise 14

= {1, 2, 3, 4}, P (1) = 0.1), A = {2, 3}, B = {3, 4}, P (A) = 0.7, P (B) = 0.5,
C = {1, 2}. Find P (C).
The short solution is to notice that C = B c . Thus P (C) = P (B c ) =
1 P (B) = 0.5.
0.6

Exercise 16

Assume that P (A B c ) = 0.1, P (B Ac ) = 0.5, and P ((A B)c ) = 0.2. Find

P (A B).
Let us rst look at diagrams representing these various sets.

A Bc

(b) Depiction of

B Ac

(A B)c

(d) Depiction of

AB

(a) Depiction of

(c) Depiction of

Figure 1: A is represented by the circle on the left and B is represented by the

circle on the right and is the entire rectangle.

After thinking about the information given to us, we might realize that AB
is a disjoint union of the sets A B c , B Ac , and A B . Because the union is
disjoint, we have
P (A B) = P (A B c ) + P (B Ac ) + P (A B).

Since P (A B) = 0.2, we have

0.8 = 0.1 + 0.5 + P (A B)

and conclude that

P (A B) = 0.2.
0.7

Exercise 18

Assume that P (A) = 0.4, P (B) = 0.4, and P (A B) = 0.7. Find P (A B) and
P (Ac B c ). Because
P (A B) = P (A) + P (B) P (A B)

we have
0.7 = 0.4 + 0.4 P (A B)

so that
P (A B) = 0.1.

Next, drawing the picture for Ac B c brings us to the realization that

A B c = (A B)c .
c

Figure 2: Depiction of Ac B c . A is represented by the circle on the left and

B is represented by the circle on the right and is the entire rectangle.
Therefore,

P (Ac B c ) = 1 P (A B) = 0.9.

0.8

Exercise 22

Find the probability of no heads when tossing three fair coins.

The outcomes of tossing three fair coins occurs equally likely and we solve
this problem using the material of this section. Letting A = {no heads} =
{all three are tails}, we have
P (A) =
0.9

|A|
1
= .
||
8

Exercise 24

Find the probability of three or more heads when tossing four fair coins.
This outcome occurs when there are exactly three heads or when there are
exactly four heads. Thus
A = {three or more heads}

= {THHH, HTHH, HHTH, HHHT, HHHH}

and we have
P (A) =
0.10

5
|A|
=
||
16

Exercise 26

Roll two fair dice and nd the probability that the sum of the two number is
even.
Updated Solution: The sum is even when both die are even or both are odd.
The possibilities to draw two even are
   
3
3

= 9.
1
1

Similarly, the number of ways to have the two die be odd is

   
3
3

= 9.
1
1

In total, we have 18 outcomes out of 36 possible outcomes and conclude the

probability that the sum is even is 12 .
0.11

Exercise 28

Roll two fair dice and nd the probability that the minimum of the two numbers
will be greater than 4.
Here we have A = {(4, 4), (4, 5), (4, 6), (5, 4), (5, 5), (5, 6), (6, 4), (6, 5), (6, 6)}
and obtain
P (A) =

|A|
9
1
=
= .
||
36
4

0.12

Exercise 34

Three children. Suppose a child has a fty percent chance of being male or
female. What is the probability the family has at least one boy?
Let A = {at least one boy}. Then Ac = {no boys} = {FFF}. Then
1
|Ac |
=
||
8

P (Ac ) =

and so
P (A) = 1 P (Ac ) =
0.13

7
.
8

Exercise 36

Color blindness is an X-linked inherited disease. A women with the color blindness gene on one of her X chromosomes, but not the other, has normal vision. A
man who carries the gene on his only X chromosome is color blind. If a woman
with normal vision who carries the gene on one of her X chromosomes has a
child with a man who has normal vision, what is the probability that their child
has normal vision?
The female has Xnormal Xcolorblind and the male has Xnormal Y. Thus their
possible ospring are
Xnormal
Y

and we have

0.14

Xnormal
Xnormal Xnormal
Xnormal Y

Xcolorblind
Xnormal Xcolorblind
Xcolorblind Y

P (child is colorblind) =

1
4

Exercise 40

Five blue and three green balls in an urn. Remove three without replacement.
What is the probability that at least two of the three balls are green?
Let us count the ways we can have exactly two green balls. We have two
green and one blue, and have to remove the ordering of the green balls. We
have
   
3
5

2
1

325
= 15.
211

Similarly, the number of ways we can have exactly three green balls is
 
3
321
=
= 1.
3
321

Thus the probability of removing at least two green balls is

16
16
2


8 = 8 7 = 7.
3

0.15

Exercise 42

Select ve cards without replacement. What is the probability you get four aces.
We can think of this problem as similar to Exercise 40. Here, instead of
green balls and red balls, we have cards which are Aces and cards which are
not. Then to choose four the number of ways is
   
4
48

= 48.
4
1

5251504948
= 13 17 5 49 48 so
The total number of combinations is 52
54321
5 =

that the probability of getting four aces is

1
.
54, 145
0.16

Exercise 44

Three green, ve blue, and four red. Take three balls without replacement.
What is t he probability that all three balls are the same color?
This event is a union of three dierent events, having all three
green, all


3
3!
three
blue,
and
all
three
red.
The
corresponding
totals
are
=
3
0!3! = 1,




5
4
5!
4!
4, respectively. There are a total of 15 events
3 = 2!3! = 10, and 3 = 1!3! =


12
12!
= 220. Thus the probability of getting
that we are counting out of 3 = 9!3!
all three balls the same color is
15
3
=
220
44
0.17

Exercise 48

Four cards. What is the probability that all are of dierent suits?
This probable is similar Exercise 40 and Exercise 42, but instead of green
balls and red balls or Aces and not aces, we have diamonds, clubs, hearts, and
spades. We choose one of each, so we have
       
13
13
13
13

= 134 .
1
1
1
1

The number of four card hands is

 
52
.
4

Thus, we have the probability of getting all four of dierent suits is

134


52 =
4

134
52515049
4321

2, 197
133
=
27 25 49
33, 075