Tutorial 1
Tutorial 1
Tutorial Sheet #1
1
10. Mr. Jones has devised a gambling system for winning at roulette. When he bets, he
bets on red, and places a bet only when the ten previous spins of the roulette have
landed on a black number. He reasons that his chance of winning is quite large since
the probability of eleven consecutive spins resulting in black is quite small. What
do you think of this system?
11. In a class there are four freshman boys, six freshman girls, and six sophomore boys.
How many sophomore girls must be present if sex and class are to be independent
when a student is selected at random?
12. Consider two boxes, one containing one black and one white marble, the other, two
black and one white marble. A box is selected at random and a marble is drawn at
random from the selected box. What is the probability that the marble is black?
What is the probability that the first box was the one selected given that the marble
is white?
13. In a certain species of rats, black dominates over brown. Suppose that a black rat
with two black parents has a brown sibling. (a) What is the probability that this
rat is a pure black rat (as opposed to being a hybrid with one black and one brown
gene)? (b) Suppose that when the black rat is mated with a brown rat, all five of
their offspring are black. Now, what is the probability that the rat is a pure black
rat?
14. Suppose we have ten coins which are such that if the ith one is flipped then heads
will appear with probability i/10, i = 1, 2, ..., 10. When one of the coins is randomly
selected and flipped, it shows heads. What is the conditional probability that it was
the fifth coin?
15. Bill and George go target shooting together. Both shoot at a target at the same time.
Suppose Bill hits the target with probability 0.7, whereas George, independently,
hits the target with probability 0.4. (a) Given that exactly one shot hit the target,
what is the probability that it was Georges shot? (b) Given that the target is hit,
what is the probability that George hit it?
16. Consider two boxes, one containing one black and one white marble, the other, two
black and one white marble. A box is selected at random and a marble is drawn at
random from the selected box. What is the probability that the marble is black?
17. Urn 1 contains two white balls and one black ball, while urn 2 contains one white
ball and five black balls. One ball is drawn at random from urn 1 and placed in urn
2. A ball is then drawn from urn 2. It happens to be white. What is the probability
that the transferred ball was white?
18. Stores A, B, and C have 50, 75, and 100 employees, and, respectively, 50, 60, and
70 percent of these are women. Resignations are equally likely among all employees
regardless of sex. One employee resigns and this is a woman. What is the probability
that she works in store C?