Problem Set 1

Problem 1: Determine the probability p, or an estimate of it, for each of the following events:

a) A king, ace, jack of clubs, or queen of diamonds appears in drawing a single card from a well-
shuffled ordinary deck of cards.

b) The sum 9 appears in a single toss of a pair of fair dice.

c) A non defective bolt will be found next if out of 600 bolts already examined, 12 were defective.

d) A 7 or 11 comes up in a single toss of a pair of fairdice.

e) At least 1 head appears in 3 tosses of a fair coin.

Problem 2: A marble is drawn at random from a box containing 10 red, 30 white, 20 blue, and 15 orange
marbles. Find the probability that it is

a) Orange or red; b) Not red or blue; c) Not blue;

d) White;

e) Red, white, or blue.

Problem 3: Two marbles are drawn in succession from the box of Problem 2, replacement being made
after each drawing. Find the probability that

1. a) Both are white;

2. b) The first is red and the second is white;
3. c) Neither is orange;
4. d) They are either red or white or both (red and white);
5. e) The second is not blue;
6. f) Thefirstisorange;
7. g) At least one is blue;
8. h) At most one is red;
9. i) The first is white but the second is not;
10. j) Only one is red;
11. k) Only one is blue.

Problem 4: Work Problem 3 with no replacement after each drawing.

Problem 5: Suppose that a number x is to be selected from the real line S, and let A; B; and C be the
events represented by the following subsets of S, where the notation {x : - - - } denotes the set containing
every point x for which the property presented following the colon is satisfied:

A = {x : 1 ≤ x ≤ 5}
B = {x : 3 ≤ x ≤ 7}
C = {x : x ≤ 0}
Describe each of the following events as a set of real numbers:

a) A'

b) A ∪ B

c) B∩C'

d) A' ∩ B' ∩ C'

e) (A∪B)∩C

Problem 6: Three six-sided dice are rolled. The six sides of each die are numbered from 1 to 6. Let A be
the event that the first die shows an even number, let B be the event that the second die shows an even
number, and let C be the event that the third die shows an even number. Also, for each i = 1;...; 6, let Ai
be the event that the first die shows the number i, let Bi be the event that the second die shows the number
i, and let Ci be the event that the third die shows the number i. Express each of the following events in
terms of the named events described above:

a) The event that all three dice show even numbers.

b) The event that no die shows an even number.
c) The event that at least one die shows an odd number.
d) The event that at most two dice show odd numbers.
e) The event that the sum of the three dice is no greater than 5.

Problem 7: Consider two events A and B such that P (A) = 1/3 and P (B) = 1/2. Determine the value of P
(B ∩ A') for each of the following conditions:

a) A and B are disjoint;

b) A  B;

c) P(A∩B)=1/8
Problem 8: If a man has six different sport-shirts and four different pairs of

slacks, how many different combinations can he wear?

Problem 9: A box contains 100 balls, of which r are red. Suppose that the balls are drawn from the box
one at a time, at random, without replacement.

Determine:
a) The probability that the first ball drawn will be red; b) The probability that the 50th ball drawn will
bered; c) The probability that the last ball drawn will be red.

Problem 10: If k people are seated in a random manner in a row containing n seats (n > k), what is the
probability that the people will occupy k adjacent seats in the row?
Problem 11: Three cards are drawn at random (without replacement) from an ordinary deck of 52 cards.
Find the number of ways in which one can draw

a) A diamond and a club and a heart in succession;

b) Two hearts and then a club or a spade

Problem 12: In how many ways can 3 different coins be placed in 2 different purses?

Problem 13: In how many ways can 5 people be seated on a sofa if there are only 3 seats available?
Problem 14: In how many ways can 7 books be arranged on a shelf if a) any arrangement is possible;
b) 3 particular books must always stand together;
c) two particular books must occupy the end.

Problem 15: How many numbers consisting of five different digits each can be made from the digits 1,
2, 3, ..., 9 if

a) the numbers must be odd;

b) the first two digits of each number are even.

Problem 16: [3, Exercise 1.69]

In how many ways can 3 men and 3 women be seated at a round table if a) no restriction is imposed;
b) 2 particular women must not sit together;
c) each woman is to be between 2 men.
Problem 17: In how many ways can 2 men, 4 women, 3 boys and 3 girls be selected from 6 men, 8
women, 4 boys and 5 girls if

a) no restrictions are imposed;

b) a particular man and woman must be selected.

Problem 18: From 5 statisticians and 6 economists, a committee of 3 statisticians and 2 economists is to
be formed. How many different committees can be formed if

a) no restrictions are imposed;

b) two particular statisticians must be on the committee; c) 1 particular economist cannot be on the
committee.

Problem 19: An urn contains 6 red and 8 blue marbles. Five marbles are drawn at random from it
without replacement. Find the probability that 3 are red and 2 are blue.

Problem 20:

1. a) Find the probability of getting the sum 7 on at least 1 of 3 tosses of a pair of fair dice;
 2. b) How many tosses are needed in order that the probability in (a) be greater than 0.95.

Problem 21: A sample space consists of 3 sample points with associated probabilities given by 2p; p2 and
4p - 1. Find the value of p.

Problem 22: How many words can be made from 5 letters if

a) all letters are different;
b) 2 letters are adjacent;
c) all letters are different but 2 particular letters cannot be adjacent.

Problem 23: Four integers are chosen at random between 0 and 9, inclusive. Find the probability that

a) they are all different;

b) not more than 2 are the same.

Problem 24: A pair of dice is tossed repeatedly. Find the probability that an 11 occurs for the first time
on the 6th toss.
Problem 25: What is the least number of tosses needed in Problem 29 so that the probability of getting
an 11 will be greater than

a) 0.5; b) 0.95.

Problem Set 2
Problem 1: A box contains 2 red and 3 blue marbles. Find the probability that if two marbles are
drawn at random (without replacement)

a) bothareblue;
b) both are red;
c) oneisredandoneisblue.

Problem 2: Find the probability of drawing 3 aces at random from a deck of 52 ordinary cards if
the cards are

a) replaced;
b) notreplaced.
Problem 3: If at least one child in a family with 2 children is a boy, what is the probability that
both children are boys?

Problem 4: Box I contains 3 red and 5 white balls, while Box II contains 4 red and 2 white balls.
A ball is chosen at random from the first box and placed in the second box without observing its
color. Then a ball is drawn from the second box. Find the probability that it is white.

Problem 5: A box contains 3 blue and 2 red marbles while another box contains 2 blue and 5 red
marbles. A marble drawn at random from one of the boxes turns out to be blue. What is the
probability that it came from the first box?

Problem 6: Each of three identical jewelry boxes has two drawers. In each drawer of the first box
there is a gold watch. In each drawer of the second box there is a silver watch. In one drawer of
the third box there is a gold watch while in the other there is a silver watch. If we select a box at
random, open one of the drawers and find it to contain a silver watch, what is the probability that
the other drawer has the gold watch?
Problem 7: Urn I has 2 white and 3 black balls; Urn II, 4 white and 1 black; and Urn III, 3 white
and 4 black. An urn is selected at random and a ball drawn at random is found to be white. Find
the probability that Urn I was selected.

2
Problem 8: The probability that a man will hit is . If he shoots at the target until he hits it for
3
the first time, find the probability that it will take him 5 shots to hit the

target.

Problem 9: A box contains r red balls and b blue balls. One ball is selected at random and its color
is observed. The ball is then returned to the box and k additional balls of the same color are also
put into the box. A second ball is then selected at random, its color is observed, and it is returned
to the box together with k additional balls of the same color. Each time another ball is selected,
the process is repeated. If four balls are selected, what is the probability that the first three balls
will be red and the fourth ball will be blue?
Problem 10: Consider an experiment in which a fair coin is tossed until a head is obtained for the
first time. If this experiment is performed three times, what is the probability that exactly the
same number of tosses will be required for each of the three performances?

Problem 11: A class in advanced physics is composed of 10 juniors, 30 seniors, and 10 graduate
students. The final grades show that 3 of the juniors, 10 of the seniors, and 5 of the graduate
students received an A for the course. If a student is chosen at random from this class and is
found to have earned an A, what is the probability that he or she is a senior?

Problem 12: Suppose that the probability that the control system used in a spaceship will mal-
function on a given flight is 0.001. Suppose further that a duplicate, but completely independent,
control system is also installed in the spaceship to take control in case the first system
malfunctions. Determine the probability that the spaceship will be under the control of either the
original system or the duplicate system on a given flight.

Problem 13: Police plan to enforce speed limits by using radar traps at four different locations
within the city limits. The radar traps at each of the locations L1, L2, L3, and L4 will be operated
40%, 30%, 20%, and 30% of the time. If a person who is speeding on her way to work has
probabilities of 0.2, 0.1, 0.5, and 0.2, respectively, of passing through these locations, what is the
probability that she will receive a speeding ticket?

Problem 14: In a certain city, 30 percent of the people are Conservatives, 50 percent are Liberals,
and 20 percent are Independents. Records show that in a particular election, 65 per- cent of the
Conservatives voted, 82 percent of the Liberals voted, and 50 percent of the Independents voted.
If a person in the city is selected at random and it is learned that she did not vote in the last
election, what is the probability that she is a Liberal?

Probability & Statistics

Problem 15: The probabilities that a service station will pump gas into 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 or more
cars during a certain 30-minute period are 0.03, 0.18, 0.24, 0.28, 0.10, and 0.17, respectively.
Find the probability that in this 30-minute period

a) more than 2 cars receive gas; b) at most 4 cars receive gas;

c) 4 or more cars receive gas.

Problem 16: The probability that a patient recovers from a delicate heart operation is 0.8. Whatis
the probability that

a) exactly 2 of the next 3 patients who have this operation survive? b) all of the next 3 patients
who have this operation survive?

Problem 17: Suppose that in a senior college class of 500 students it is found that 210 smoke, 258
drink alcoholic beverages, 216 eat between meals, 122 smoke and drink alcoholic bev- erages, 83
eat between meals and drink alcoholic beverages, 97 smoke and eat between meals,and 52 engage
in all three of these bad health practices. If a member of this senior class is selected at random,
find the probability that the student

a) smokes but does not drink alcoholic beverages;

b) eats between meals and drinks alcoholic beverages but does not smoke; c) neither smokes nor
eats between meals.

Problem 18: A box contains 20 red balls, 30 white balls, and 50 blue balls. Suppose that 10 balls
are selected at random one at a time, with replacement; that is, each selected ball is replaced in
the box before the next selection is made. Determine the probability that at least one color will be
missing from the 10 selected balls.