CS203B : Mathematics for Computer Science - III

CSE, IIT Kanpur

1. Let A and B be events with probabilities P (A) = 3/4 and P (B) = 1/3. Show that 1/12 ≤
P (A ∩ B) ≤ 1/3, and give examples to show that both extremes are possible. Find corresponding
bounds for P (AU B).

2. You are given that at least one of the event Ar , 1 ≤ r ≤ n, is certain to occur, but certainly no
more than two occur. If P (Ar ) = p for each 1 ≤ r ≤ n, P (Ar ∩ As ) = q, r 6= s, show that p ≥ 1/n
and q ≤ 2/n.

3. 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 tossed it. What is probability that the lower face of
coin is head? He opens his eyes and sees that the coin is showing head; what is the probability that
the lower face is head? He shuts his eyes again, and tossed the coin again. What is the probability
that the lower face is a head? He opens his eyes and sees that the coin is showing head; what is
the probability that the lower face is a head? He discards this coin, and picks another at random,
and tosses it, what is the probability that it shows heads?
Solution: Already discussed in the class.

4. There are n urns of which the rth contains r − 1 red balls and n − r blue balls. You pick an urn at
random and remove two balls at random without replacement. Find the probability that:
a) the second ball is blue;
b) the second ball is blue, given that the first is blue.
Solution: 1/2,2/3. Try for 3 urns first, ....

5. We roll a dice n times. Let Aij be the event that the ith and jth rolls produce the same number.
Show that the events {Aij : 1 ≤ i < j ≤ n} are pairwise independent but not independent.
(Hint for 2nd part: Consider any three distinct i, j, k. Analyse the corresponding events: Aij , Ajk ,
Aik .)

6. Two fair dice are rolled. Show that the event that their sum is 7 is independent of score shown by
the first die.

7. There are two roads from A to B and two roads from B to C. Each of the four roads is blocked by
snow with probability p, independent of the others.
a) Find the probability that there is an open road from A to B.
b) Find the probability that there is an open road from A to B given that there is no open route
from A to C.
c) If, in addition, there is a direct road from A to C, this road being blocked with probability p
independently of others, Find the required conditional probability mentioned in part (b) above.
(1−p2 )p2 (1−p2 )p2
Solution: 1 − p2 , 1−(1−p2 )2 , 1−(1−p2 )2 (same as part (b)).

8. A pack contains m cards, labelled 1, 2, , m. The cards are dealt out in a random orders, one by one.
Given that the label of kth card dealt is the largest of the first k cards dealt, what is the probability
that it is also the largest in the pack? Solution: k/m.

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 9. A bowl contains twenty cherries, exactly fifteen of which have had their stones removed. A greedy
pig eats five whole cherries, picked at random, without remarking on the presence or absence of
stones. Subsequently, a cherry is picked randomly from remaining fifteen.
a) What is the probability that this cherry contains a stones?
b) Given that this cherry contains a stone, what is probability that the pig consumed at least one
stone?

15 14 13 12 11
Solution: 5/20, 1 − 19 · 18 · 17 · 16 · 15 .

10. The menages problem poses the following question. Some consider it to be desirable that men and
women alternates when seated at the circular table. If n couples are seated randomly according to
this rule, what is the probability that nobody sits next to his or her partner ?
Solution: Apply the theorem for union of events carefully, and try for some more days...
11. You choose r of the first n positive integers, and a lottery chooses a random subset L of the same
size. What is the probability that:
a) L includes no consecutive integers?
b) L includes exactly one pair of consecutive integers?
c) the number in L are drawn in increasing order?
d) your choice of numbers is same as L?
e) there are exactly k of your numbers matching members of L?

Solution:


a) n−r+1 r / nr .
b) (r − 1) n−r+1

n

r−1 / r .
c) 1r .
d) n1 .
( r
)
e) kr n−r

n

r−k / r .

12. You are lost in National Park of Bandrika. Tourists comprise two-thirds of the visitors to the park,
and give a correct answer to requests for directions with probability 3/4. (Answer to repeated ques-
tion are independent, even if the question and the person are the same). If you ask a Bandrikan
for direction, the answer is always false.
a)You ask a passer-by whether the exit from park is east or west. The answer is East. What is the
probability this is correct?
b)You ask the same person again, and received the same reply. Show the probability that it is
correct is 1/2.
c) You ask the same person again, and received the same reply. What is the probability that it is
correct?
d) You ask for the forth time, and receive the answer East. Show that the probability it is correct
is 27/70.
e) Show that, had the forth answer been West instead, the probability that East is nevertheless
correct is 9/10.

Balls into Bins

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 (a) Find the conditional probability that bin 1 has one ball given that exactly one ball fell into
the first three bins.
(b) Find the conditional probability that the number of balls in bin 1 is 2 under the condition that
bin 2 received n/2 balls.
(c) What is the conditional probability that nth bin is empty given that the bins numbered 1 to
n/2 are empty ?

Note: There are a few questions in this sheet which were asked during the lectures.