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1. The document contains 13 exercises related to probability and randomized algorithms. The exercises range from easy to difficult and cover topics like conditional probability, independence of events, geometric probability, and more. 2. Students are asked to complete the exercises to refresh their understanding of basic probability concepts in preparation for a course on randomized algorithms. The exercises will not be graded but attempting them is recommended for long-term learning. 3. The exercises include problems like calculating probabilities of events, determining probabilities based on conditional information, analyzing coin tosses and selections with replacement and without replacement, and geometric problems involving chords, lines, and triangles.

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100 views2 pages

Assign0 Ps

1. The document contains 13 exercises related to probability and randomized algorithms. The exercises range from easy to difficult and cover topics like conditional probability, independence of events, geometric probability, and more. 2. Students are asked to complete the exercises to refresh their understanding of basic probability concepts in preparation for a course on randomized algorithms. The exercises will not be graded but attempting them is recommended for long-term learning. 3. The exercises include problems like calculating probabilities of events, determining probabilities based on conditional information, analyzing coin tosses and selections with replacement and without replacement, and geometric problems involving chords, lines, and triangles.

Uploaded by

venugopal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PS, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Dr.

Surender Baswana

IS

UN

FR 6.2 Informatik

E R SIT

I N F O R M A T I K

SA

Universitat
des
Saarlandes

IV

A VIE N

WS 2004/5

Exercises for Randomized Algorithms


1. Assignment

Due : Never

The objective of the following exercises is to refresh simple probability fundamentals (probability of union of
events, conditional probability, independence of events). This assignment wont be graded. However, Making
sincere attempts to solve these exercises would help in long run for the randomized algorithms course.
Exercise 1 (easy)
A man is given n keys of which only one fits his door. He tries them successively (sampling without replacement). This procedure may require 1; 2;    ; n trials. Show that each of these n outcomes has probability
1.
n
Exercise 2 (easy)
A throws six dice and wins if he scores at least one ace. B throws twelve dice and wins if scores at least two
aces. Who has the greater probability to win ?
(Hint : Calculate the probabilities to lose.)
Exercise 3 (easy)
There are n urns of which the r th urn contains r 1 red balls and n r magenta balls. You pick an urn at
random and remove two balls at random without replacement. Find the probability that :
(i) the second ball is magenta;
(ii) the second ball is magenta given that the first ball is magenta.
Exercise 4 (easy)
Suppose that each of n sticks is broken into one long and one short part. The 2n parts are arranged into n pairs
from which new sticks are formed. Find the probability (a) that the parts will be joined in the original order,
(b) that the long parts are paired with short parts.
Exercise 5 (easy)
Find an example of 3 events in some probability space, such that each 2 of them are independent but all 3 are
not independent.
Exercise 6 (difficult)
Let (
; P ) be a finite probability space in which all sample points (elementary events) have the same probability.
Show that if j
j is a prime number then no two nontrivial events (distinct from ; and
) can be independent.
Exercise 7 (moderate)
For simplicity, assume that the probability of the birth of a boy and of a girl are the same. Consider the following
problems :

For a certain family, we know that they have exactly two children, and that at least one of them is a boy.
What is the probability that they have two boys ?

We sample a boy from a given population. It is found that the boy comes from a family having two
children. What is the probability that the boy has a sister.

Exercise 8 (moderate)
Let n be a positive integer. There is a family. The family can have 1;    ; n children with probability
i=n
p1 ; p2 ;    ; pn each. Note that
i=1 pi = 1. Also for any family size all sex distributions have equal probability. More formally, if it is known that a family has i children, each of the 2i possible sex distributions
is equally likely. We now ask the following question : If it is known that a family has no girls, what is the
probability that it has only one child ?

Exercise 9 (moderate)
A man possesses five coins, two of which are double-headed, one is double-tailed, and two are normal. He shuts
his eyes, picks a coin at random, and tosses it. What is the probability that the lower face of the coin is a head?
He opens his eyes and sees that the coin is showing heads; what is the probability that the lower face is a head?
He shuts his eyes again, and tosses the coin again. what is the probability that the lower face is a head?
He opens his eyes ad sees that the coin is showing heads; what is the probability that the lower face is a head?
He discards this coin, picks another at random, and tosses it. What is the probability that it shows heads?
Exercise 10 (moderate)
In how many different ways, can we place 8 (indistinguishable) rooks on a 8  8 chess board so that no two of
them attack each other and no one occupies a position on the white diagonal ?
The following problems are on geometric probability.
Exercise 11 (moderate)
Given a unit circle, we select a chord from this circle at random. Note that a chord is uniquely defined if we
know its midpoint. What is the probability that the chord will be longer than side of an equilateral triangle
inscribed in the circle if
a) the chord is selected by selecting its endpoints at random from the circumference of the circle
b) we first select the midpoint of the chord uniformly at random from inside the circle, and then define the
corresponding chord.
c) we select the midpoint of the chord such that its distance from the center of the circle is uniformly
distributed in the range (0; 1), and then define the corresponding chord.
Exercise 12 (moderate)
We select three real numbers X; Y ; Z uniformly independently from the interval (0; 1). What is the probability
that X Y > Z 2 ?
Exercise 13 (moderate)
We select two points uniformly independently from line segment of unit length. The two points partition the
segment into three sub-segments.
a) What is the expected length of the smallest segment ?
b) What is the probability that the three segments can form a triangle ?

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