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Here Are Some Examples For Combustion Engineering and Machine Design 1 For Mechanical Engineering Students

The document provides 10 examples of probability problems and their solutions. It covers topics like finding the probability of complementary events, estimating pi using a dart throwing experiment, probability of picking a certain color marble, and calculating the probability of multiple independent events. The examples demonstrate how to set up and solve different types of probability calculations.

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Zeke Kazami
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60 views9 pages

Here Are Some Examples For Combustion Engineering and Machine Design 1 For Mechanical Engineering Students

The document provides 10 examples of probability problems and their solutions. It covers topics like finding the probability of complementary events, estimating pi using a dart throwing experiment, probability of picking a certain color marble, and calculating the probability of multiple independent events. The examples demonstrate how to set up and solve different types of probability calculations.

Uploaded by

Zeke Kazami
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Here are some examples for combustion engineering

And machine design 1


For mechanical engineering students

Example 4

Sam and Joan are playing a


tennis match. If the probability of
Sam's win is 0.590.59, then find
the probability of Joan's win.

Solution:

Let event AA = Sam wins and


event BB = Joan wins. Then,

P(A)P(A) = 0.590.59

Since if Sam wins, Joan cannot


win and if Joan wins, Sam cannot
win, so we can say that the
events AA and BB are mutually
exclusive. Other than these two
events, there are no any other
possible outcomes. So,

P(A)+P(B)P(A)+P(B) = 11

∴ 0.59+P(B)∴ 0.59+P(B) = 11

∴ P(B)∴ P(B) = 1−0.591−0.59 = 0.41 ← Answer


Example 5

One hundred people line up to board an airplane. Each has a boarding pass with
assigned seat. However, the first person to board has lost his boarding pass and
takes a random seat. After that, each person takes the assigned seat if it is
unoccupied, and one of unoccupied seats at random otherwise. What is the
probability that the last person to board gets to sit in his assigned seat?

Solution:

Look at the situation when the k’th passenger enters. Neither of the previous

passengers showed any preference for the k’th seat vs. the seat of the first

passenger. This in particular is true when k = n. But the n’th passenger can

only occupy his seat or the first passenger’s seat. Therefore the probability is

1/2.

Example 6

A fair coin is tossed, and a fair die is thrown. Write down sample spaces for
(a) the toss of the coin;
(b) the throw of the die;
(c) the combination of these experiments.
Let A be the event that a head is tossed, and B be the event that an odd
number is thrown. Directly
from the sample space, calculate P(A ∩B) and P(A ∩B).
SOLUTION:

(a) {Head, Tail}


(b) {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}
(c) {(1 ∩Head), (1 ∩ Tail), . . . , (6 ∩ Head), (6 ∩ Tail)}

Clearly P(A) = 1/2 = P(B).


We can assume that the two events are independent, so
P(A ∩ B) = P(A)P(B) =1/4
.
Alternatively, we can examine the sample space above and deduce that three
of the twelve equally
likely events comprise A ∩ B.

Also, P(A ∩ B) = P(A) + P(B) − P(A ∩B) = 3


4 , where this probability can also be determined by
noticing from the sample space that nine of twelve equally likely events
comprise

A ∩B.

Example 7

M&M sweets are of varying colours and the different colours occur in different
proportions. The table
below gives the probability that a randomly chosen M&M has each colour, but the
value for tan candies
is missing.

Colour Brown Red Yellow Green Orange Tan

Probability 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.1 ?

(a) What value must the missing probability be?


(b) You draw an M&M at random from a packet. What is the probability of each of the
following
events?
i. You get a brown one or a red one.
ii. You don’t get a yellow one.
iii. You don’t get either an orange one or a tan one.
iv. You get one that is brown or red or yellow or green or orange or tan.

SOLUTION:
(a) The probabilities must sum to 1.0 Therefore, the answer is
1−0.3−0.2−0.2−0.1−0.1 = 1−0.9 = .1.
(b) Simply add and subtract the appropriate probabilities.
i. 0.3+0.2 = 0.5 since it can’t be brown and red simultaneously (the events are
incompatible).
ii. 1 − P(yellow) = 1 − 0.2 = 0.8.
iii. 1 − P(orange or tan) = 1 − P(orange) − P(tan) = 1 − 0.1 − 0.1 = 0.8 (since orange
and
tan are incompatible events).
iv. This must happen; the probability is 1.0

Example 8
Consider the following experiment. You draw a square, of width 1 foot, on the
floor. Inside the square,
You inscribe a circle of diameter 1 foot. The circle will just fit inside the
square.
You then throw a dart at the square in such a way that it is equally likely to fall
on any point of the
square. What is the probability that the dart falls inside the circle? (Think
about area!)
How might this process be used to estimate the value of π?

SOLUTION:
All points in the square are equally likely so that probability is the ratio of the
area of the circle to
the area of the square. The area of the square is 1 and the area of the circle is
π/4 (since the radiusis 1/2). If you don’t know _ you can estimate it by
repeating the experiment a very large number of
times. Then _ will be approximately the same as the proportion of times the
dart fall in the circle
multiplied by 4.

Example 9
There are 2 green and 5 black marbles. If one marble is chosen at random
then what is the probability of getting green marble.

Solution:

The probability can be calculated by number of favorable events to total


number of events.

Number of favorable events, n(E) = 2

Total events in sample space, n(S) = 2 + 5 = 7

Probability = n(E)/n(S) = 27t

Example 10
What is the probability of tossing two heads in a row?
Since we already did the math, we know that the probability of tossing a
heads is 1/2.
We also know that this doesn't change. No matter how many times we flip the
coin, there will always be two options, one of which is heads. So the chance
of tossing a heads is still 1/2.
(1/2) * (1/2) = ?

Solution:

When multiplying fractions, multiply the numerators (top numbers) and then
the denominators (the bottom numbers). Don't forget to simplify the product.

(½)*( ½) = ¼

So the product is 1/4. There is a 1:4 or 25% chance of getting two heads in a
row.

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