48 Chapter 2 Probability

Exercises
2.35 An airline has six flights from New York to California and seven flights from California to
Hawaii per day. If the flights are to be made on separate days, how many different flight
arrangements can the airline offer from New York to Hawaii?
2.36 An assembly operation in a manufacturing plant requires three steps that can be performed in
any sequence. How many different ways can the assembly be performed?
2.37 A businesswoman in Philadelphia is preparing an itinerary for a visit to six major cities. The
distance traveled, and hence the cost of the trip, will depend on the order in which she plans
her route.
a How many different itineraries (and trip costs) are possible?
b If the businesswoman randomly selects one of the possible itineraries and Denver and San
Francisco are two of the cities that she plans to visit, what is the probability that she will
visit Denver before San Francisco?
2.38 An upscale restaurant offers a special fixe prix menu in which, for a fixed dinner cost, a diner can
select from four appetizers, three salads, four entrees, and five desserts. How many different
dinners are available if a dinner consists of one appetizer, one salad, one entree, and one
dessert?
2.39 An experiment consists of tossing a pair of dice.
a Use the combinatorial theorems to determine the number of sample points in the sample
space S.
b Find the probability that the sum of the numbers appearing on the dice is equal to 7.
2.40 A brand of automobile comes in five different styles, with four types of engines, with two types
of transmissions, and in eight colors.
a How many autos would a dealer have to stock if he included one for each style–engine–
transmission combination?
b How many would a distribution center have to carry if all colors of cars were stocked for
each combination in part (a)?
2.41 How many different seven-digit telephone numbers can be formed if the first digit cannot be
zero?
2.42 A personnel director for a corporation has hired ten new engineers. If three (distinctly different)
positions are open at a Cleveland plant, in how many ways can she fill the positions?
2.43 A fleet of nine taxis is to be dispatched to three airports in such a way that three go to airport
A, five go to airport B, and one goes to airport C. In how many distinct ways can this be
accomplished?
2.44 Refer to Exercise 2.43. Assume that taxis are allocated to airports at random.
a If exactly one of the taxis is in need of repair, what is the probability that it is dispatched
to airport C?
b If exactly three of the taxis are in need of repair, what is the probability that every airport
receives one of the taxis requiring repairs?
2.45 Suppose that we wish to expand (x + y + z)17 . What is the coefficient of x 2 y 5 z 10 ?
 Exercises 49

2.46 Ten teams are playing in a basketball tournament. In the first round, the teams are randomly
assigned to games 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. In how many ways can the teams be assigned to the games?
*2.47 Refer to Exercise 2.46. If 2n teams are to be assigned to games 1, 2, . . . , n, in how many ways
can the teams be assigned to the games?
2.48 If we wish to expand (x + y)8 , what is the coefficient of x 5 y 3 ? What is the coefficient of
x 3 y5?
2.49 Students attending the University of Florida can select from 130 major areas of study. A
student’s major is identified in the registrar’s records with a two-or three-letter code (for
example, statistics majors are identified by STA, math majors by MS). Some students opt for
a double major and complete the requirements for both of the major areas before graduation.
The registrar was asked to consider assigning these double majors a distinct two- or three-letter
code so that they could be identified through the student records’ system.
a What is the maximum number of possible double majors available to University of Florida
students?
b If any two- or three-letter code is available to identify majors or double majors, how many
major codes are available?
c How many major codes are required to identify students who have either a single major or
a double major?
d Are there enough major codes available to identify all single and double majors at the
University of Florida?
2.50 Probability played a role in the rigging of the April 24, 1980, Pennsylvania state lottery (Los
Angeles Times, September 8, 1980). To determine each digit of the three-digit winning number,
each of the numbers 0, 1, 2, . . . , 9 is placed on a Ping-Pong ball, the ten balls are blown into
a compartment, and the number selected for the digit is the one on the ball that floats to the
top of the machine. To alter the odds, the conspirators injected a liquid into all balls used in
the game except those numbered 4 and 6, making it almost certain that the lighter balls would
be selected and determine the digits in the winning number. Then they bought lottery tickets
bearing the potential winning numbers. How many potential winning numbers were there (666
was the eventual winner)?
2.51 A local fraternity is conducting a raffle where 50 tickets are to be sold—one per customer.
There are three prizes to be awarded. If the four organizers of the raffle each buy one ticket,
what is the probability that the four organizers win
a all of the prizes?
b exactly two of the prizes?
c exactly one of the prizes?
d none of the prizes?
2.52 An experimenter wishes to investigate the effect of three variables—pressure, temperature,
and the type of catalyst—on the yield in a refining process. If the experimenter intends to
use three settings each for temperature and pressure and two types of catalysts, how many
experimental runs will have to be conducted if he wishes to run all possible combinations of
pressure, temperature, and types of catalysts?
2.53 Five firms, F1 , F2 , . . . , F5 , each offer bids on three separate contracts, C1 , C2 , and C3 . Any one
firm will be awarded at most one contract. The contracts are quite different, so an assignment
of C1 to F1 , say, is to be distinguished from an assignment of C2 to F1 .
50 Chapter 2 Probability

a How many sample points are there altogether in this experiment involving assignment of
contracts to the firms? (No need to list them all.)
b Under the assumption of equally likely sample points, find the probability that F3 is awarded
a contract.
2.54 A group of three undergraduate and five graduate students are available to fill certain stu-
dent government posts. If four students are to be randomly selected from this group, find the
probability that exactly two undergraduates will be among the four chosen.
2.55 A study is to be conducted in a hospital to determine the attitudes of nurses toward various
administrative procedures. A sample of 10 nurses is to be selected from a total of the 90 nurses
employed by the hospital.

a How many different samples of 10 nurses can be selected?

b Twenty of the 90 nurses are male. If 10 nurses are randomly selected from those employed
by the hospital, what is the probability that the sample of ten will include exactly 4 male
(and 6 female) nurses?

2.56 A student prepares for an exam by studying a list of ten problems. She can solve six of them.
For the exam, the instructor selects five problems at random from the ten on the list given
to the students. What is the probability that the student can solve all five problems on the
exam?
2.57 Two cards are drawn from a standard 52-card playing deck. What is the probability that the
draw will yield an ace and a face card?
2.58 Five cards are dealt from a standard 52-card deck. What is the probability that we draw

a 3 aces and 2 kings?

b a “full house” (3 cards of one kind, 2 cards of another kind)?

2.59 Five cards are dealt from a standard 52-card deck. What is the probability that we draw
a 1 ace, 1 two, 1 three, 1 four, and 1 five (this is one way to get a “straight”)?
b any straight?
2.60 Refer to Example 2.7. Suppose that we record the birthday for each of n randomly selected
persons.
a Give an expression for the probability that none share the same birthday.
b What is the smallest value of n so that the probability is at least .5 that at least two people
share a birthday?
2.61 Suppose that we ask n randomly selected people whether they share your birthday.
a Give an expression for the probability that no one shares your birthday (ignore leap years).
b How many people do we need to select so that the probability is at least .5 that at least one
shares your birthday?
2.62 A manufacturer has nine distinct motors in stock, two of which came from a particular supplier.
The motors must be divided among three production lines, with three motors going to each
line. If the assignment of motors to lines is random, find the probability that both motors from
the particular supplier are assigned to the first line.
2.63 The eight-member Human Relations Advisory Board of Gainesville, Florida, considered
the complaint of a woman who claimed discrimination, based on sex, on the part of a local
 2.7 Conditional Probability and the Independence of Events 51

company. The board, composed of five women and three men, voted 5–3 in favor of the plaintiff,
the five women voting in favor of the plaintiff, the three men against. The attorney representing
the company appealed the board’s decision by claiming sex bias on the part of the board mem-
bers. If there was no sex bias among the board members, it might be reasonable to conjecture
that any group of five board members would be as likely to vote for the complainant as any
other group of five. If this were the case, what is the probability that the vote would split along
sex lines (five women for, three men against)?
2.64 A balanced die is tossed six times, and the number on the uppermost face is recorded each
time. What is the probability that the numbers recorded are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 in any order?
2.65 Refer to Exercise 2.64. Suppose that the die has been altered so that the faces are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
and 5. If the die is tossed five times, what is the probability that the numbers recorded are 1, 2,
3, 4, and 5 in any order?
2.66 Refer to Example 2.10. What is the probability that
a an ethnic group member is assigned to each type of job?
b no ethnic group member is assigned to a type 4 job?
2.67 Refer to Example 2.13. Suppose that the number of distributors is M = 10 and that there are
n = 7 orders to be placed. What is the probability that
a all of the orders go to different distributors?
*b distributor I gets exactly two orders and distributor II gets exactly three orders?
*c distributors I, II, and III get exactly two, three, and one order(s), respectively?
2.68 Show that, for any integer n ≥ 1,

a nn = 1. Interpret this result.

b n0 = 1. Interpret this result.
n   n 
c r = n−r . Interpret this result.
 n  
n
d = 2n . [Hint: Consider the binomial expansion of (x + y)n with x = y = 1.]
i=0
i
  n   n 
2.69 Prove that n+1
k
= k + k−1 .
*2.70 Consider the situation where  are to be partitioned into k < n distinct subsets. The
n items
n
multinomial coefficients n1 n2 ··· nk provide the number of distinct partitions where n 1 items
are in group 1, n 2 are in group 2, . . . , n k are in group k. Prove that the total number of distinct
partitions equals k n . [Hint: Recall Exercise 2.68(d).]

2.7 Conditional Probability

and the Independence of Events
The probability of an event will sometimes depend upon whether we know that other
events have occurred. For example, Florida sport fishermen are vitally interested
in the probability of rain. The probability of rain on a given day, ignoring the daily
atmospheric conditions or any other events, is the fraction of days in which rain occurs
over a long period of time. This is the unconditional probability of the event “rain on
a given day.” Now suppose that we wish to consider the probability of rain tomorrow.