CE605

Assignment 1
Q.1 A committee of 7 is to be selected from a group of 7 men and 10 women. If
selection made randomly, what is the probability that the committee consists
of 3 men and 4 women? (Ans. = 0.378)
Q.2 Suppose that n+m balls, of which n are red and m are blue, are arranged in a
linear order in a such a way that all (n+m)! possible orderings are equally
likely. If we record the result of this experiment by only listing the colors the
colors of the successive balls, show that all the possible results remain equally
likely. (Ans. = n!m!/(n+m)!)
Q.3 If n people are present in a room, what is the probability that no two of the m
celebrate their birthday on the same day of the year? How large need n be so
that probability is less than 0.5? (Ans. = 1/365 and n23)
Q.4 Suppose that each of N men at a party throws his hat into the center of the
room. The hats are mixed up, and then each man randomly selects a hat. What
is probability that
(a) None of men selects his own hat? ((Ans. = 0.37)
(b) Exactly k of the men selects their own hats? (Ans. = e -1/k!)
Q.5 A school is offering 3 language classes: one Spanish, one in French, and on in
German. These classes are open to any of the 100 students in the school.
There are 28 students in Spanish class, 26 in French class and 16 in German
class. There are 12 students that are in both Spanish and French, 4 that are in
both Spanish and German and 6 that are in both French and German. In
addition, there are two students taking all 3 classes.
(a) If a student is chosen randomly, what is the probability that he or she is not
in any of these classes? (Ans. = 0.5)
(b) If a student is chosen randomly, what is the probability that he or she is
taking exactly one language class? (Ans. = 0.32)
(b) If 2 students are chosen randomly, what is the probability that at least 1 is
taking a language class? (Ans. = 0.75)
Q.6 An ordinary deck of 52 playing cards is randomly divided into 4 piles of 13
cards each. Compute the probability that each pile has exactly 1 ace. (Ans. =
0.105)
Q.7 At a certain stage of a criminal investigation the inspector in-charge is 60
percent convinced of the guilt of a certain suspect. Suppose now that a new
piece of evidence that shows that the criminal has a certain characteristic
(such as left-handedness, baldness, or brown hair) is uncovered. If 20 percent

of the population possesses this characteristic, how certain of the guilt of the
suspect should the inspector now be it turn out that the suspect has this
characteristic? (Ans. = 0.882)
Q.8 The probability that a new car battery functions for over 10,000 km is 0.8, the
probability that it functions for over 20,000 km is 0.4 and the probability that it
functions for over 30,000 km is 0.1. If a new car battery still working after
10,000 km, what is the probability that
(a) its total life will exceed 20,000 km; (Ans. = 0.5)
(b) its additional life will exceed 20,000 km (Ans. = 0.125)
Q.9 The probability mass function of a random variable is given by p(i) = ci/i!, i =
0, 1, 2 .., where is some positive value. Find (a) P{X = 0} and (b)
P{X>2}. (Ans. (a) e-, (b) 1-e--2e-/2)
Q.10A product, sold seasonally, yields a net profit of b dollars for each unit sold and
a net loss of l dollars for each unit left unsold when the season ends. The
number of units of the product that are ordered at a specific department store
during any season is a random variable having probability mass function p(i), i
0. If the store must stock this product in advance, determine the number of
units the store should stock so as to maximize its expected profit. (Ans. <b/(b+
l))
Q.11Find fair coins are flipped. If the outcomes are assumed independent, find the
probability mass function of the number of heads obtained. (Ans. = 0.031,
0.156, 0.313, 0.313, 0.156, 0.031)