Math 381 Test 1 Solutions Professor Carlson

1. (10 pts) A die is loaded so the probability of rolling a 6 is twice as

high as the probability of rolling each one of the numbers 1 5, which have
equal probability. What is the probability of getting an even number on one
throw?
Let p be the probability of rolling each one of the numbers 1 5. Then
5p + 2p = 1, so p = 1/7. The probability of getting an even number on one
throw is
P (2) + P (4) + P (6) = 4/7.

2. (10 pts) How many distinct permutations can be made from the
letters of the word columns ?
Since there are 7 distinct symbols, there are 7! = 7 6 2 1 permuta-
tions.
3. (10 pts) In how many ways can 4 boys and 5 girls sit in a row if the
boys and girls must alternate?
To alternate, the girls must sit in seats 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and the boys must
sit in the other seats. There are 5! ways to seat the girls, 4! ways to seat
the boys, and so 5! 4! ways to seat all the students.
4. (10 pts) Let X be the random variable which is the sum of two (fair)
dice. Find the distribution function for X, that is P (X = n) for all possible
outcomes n.
There are 36 rolls of two (colored) dice. Counting the number of ways
to achieve each outcome gives

n: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
n o
1 2 3 4 5 6 5 4 3 2 1
P (X = n) : 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36

1
 5. (10 pts) You draw 5 cards from a standard 52 card deck. The order
in which cards are drawn does not matter. What is the probability of getting
a 5 card hand with 4 aces? There is no need to evaluate expressions of the
form N !.
The number of 5 card hands is 52


5
. In a hands with 4 aces there are
52 4 = 48 cards to choose from for the fifth card. Thus the probability of
getting a 5 card hand with 4 aces is
 
52 48 5!47! 5!
48/ = = .
5 52! 52 51 50 49

6. (15 pts) Suppose a random variable X has probability density func-

tion
C sin(x), 0 x 1,
n o
f (x) =
0, otherwise.
(a) Find the value of C.
(b) Find the probability of the event 1/4 X 3/4.
We must have
1
C cos(x) 1 2C
Z
1= C sin(x) dx =  = .
0 0

Thus
(a) C = /2.
(b) The probability of the event 1/4 X 3/4 is

3/4
cos(x) 3/4
Z
sin(x) dx =
2 2

1/4 1/4

1
= [cos(/4) cos(3/4)] = 2/2.
2

2
 7. (10 pts) In a ten question true-false exam, find the probability that
a student gets a grade of 70% or better by guessing.
This is the same as the probability of getting 7 or more heads when
tossing 10 fair coins, or
       
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
2 + 2 + 2 + 2 .
7 8 9 10

8. (10 pts) Show that the number of ways that one can put N different
objects into three boxes with a in the first, b in the second, and c in the third
is
N!
.
a!b!c!
Put a in the first box and b + c in a separate pile. Since a + b + c = N ,
the number of ways to do this is
 
N N!
= .
a a!(b + c)!

For each of these arrangements, there are

 
b+c (b + c)!
=
b b!c!

ways to select b of the b + c items for inclusion in box 2. Thus the count is
  
N b+c N! (b + c)! N!
= = .
a b a!(b + c)! a!c! a!b!c!

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 9. (15 pts) A dart is thrown at a unit square

S = {(x, y)| 0 x 1, 0 y 1}

in such a way that the probability that the dart lands in a set E S is just
the area of E. If (X, Y ) is the position of a dart, find the probability that
(a) X + Y 1/2
This region is a right triangle with height and base equal to 1/2, so the
area, or probability, is 1/8.
(b) Y X 2 .
This is the area in the box which is above the parabola Y = X 2 . Since
the area under the parabola is
Z 1
x2 dx = 1/3,
0

the area, or probability, is 2/3