CHAPTER 3 Flashcards
GAMBLER TOSS COIN
A gambler devised a game to be played with a friend. He bet 1/2 the money in his pocket on the toss of a coin; heads he won, tails he lost. The coin was tossed and the money handed over. The offer was repeated and the game continued. Each time the bet was for 1/2 the money then in his possession. Eventually the number of times he lost was equal to thenumber of times he won. Quickly now! Did he gain, lose, or break even?
He lost, even if they played only twice, or four times, or six,
or…
PRISONER, WHITE AND BLACK BALLS
A prisoner is given 10 white balls, 10 black balls and two boxes. He is told that an executioner will draw one ball from one of the two boxes. If it is white, the prisoner will go free; if it is black, he will die. How should the prisoner arrange the balls in the boxes to give himself the best chance for survival?
- balls in 1st box?
- balls in 2nd box?
- survival rate?
- 1st box - 1 white
- 2nd box - 9 white & 10 black
- survival: 73.7%
MARKSMEN SHOOT EACH OTHER
Smith and Jones, both 50% marksmen, decide to fight a duel in which they exchange alternate shots until one is hit. What are the odds in favor of the man who shoots first?
2/3
CIRCLE AND LINE
There are n points on a circle. A straight line segment is drawn between each pair of points. How many intersections are there within the circle if no 3 lines are collinear?
- equation?
- nC4
- n(n-1)(n-2)(n-3) / 4!
where: n = number of points
example:
4 points = 1 intersection
5 points = 5 intersetion
PARKING LOT
On a certain day, our parking lot contains 999 cars, no two of which have the same 3 digit license number. After 5:00 pm, what is the probability that the license numbers of the first 4 cars to leave the parking lot are in increasing order of magnitude?
- 1/24
notes:
4! or 24 possible permutations of 4 cars
Only one of these is in increasing rank of licence magnitude
MARKSMEN SHOOT SPHERICAL TARGET
Three marksmen simultaneously shoot at and hit a rapidly spinning spherical target. What is the probability that the three points of impact are on the same hemisphere?
probability = 1
note:
since any three points on the surface of a sphere are always located on some hemisphere
HOSPITAL NURSERY
A hospital nursery contains only two baby boys; the girls have not yet been counted. At 2:00 pm, a new baby is added to the nursery. A baby is then selected at random to be the first to have its footprint taken. It turns out to be a boy. What is the probability that the Iast addition to the nursery was a girl?
2/5
SINKING SUBMARINE
Assume that a single depth charge has a probability of 1/2 of sinking a submarine, 1/4 of damage and 1/4 of missing. Assume also that two damaging explosions sink the sub. What is the probability that 4 depth charges will sink the sub?
- probability to sunk?
- probability to escape?
Probability (sunk) = 251/256 = 98%
Probability (escape) = 5/256 = 2%
SUITES IN HAND AT BRIDGE
What is the most likely distribution of the suits in a hand at Bridge?
4-4-3-2 distribution
TRUE COIN
Using a “true” coin, a random sequence of binary digits can be generated by letting, say heads denote zero and tails, one. An operations analyst wished to obtain such a sequence, but he had only one coin which he suspected was not true. Could he still do it?
- could he still do it?
- consider what throw?
- delete?
- equiprobable?
- Yes
Conditions
* consider throws in pair
* delete occurence HH or TT
* HT and TH equiprobable, one may be used to denote 0, the other 1
MARBLES IN THE BAG
If 2 marbles are removed at random from a bag containing black and white marbles, the chance that they are both white is 1/3. If
3 are removed at random, the chance that they all are white is 1/6. How many marbles are there of each color?
- white?
- black?
white = 6
black = 4
2 BROTHER’S IN LAW
Rigorously speaking, two men are “brothers in-law” if one is married to the full sister of the other. How many men can there be with each man a brother-in-law of every other man?
- 3 men only in a group is possible
An additional mutual brother-in-law, however, is not possible without violating either the laws of bigamy or consanguinity.
6 TO 5 ODDS
An expert gives team A only a 40% chance to win the World Series. Basing his calculation on this, a gambler offers 6 to 5 odds on team B to win the first game. Is his judgment sound?
- chance team A?
- chance team B?
- odds 6 to 5?
- the gambler is on the safe side.
notes:
A chance of winning = 0.4539
B chance of winning = 0.5461
Odds 6 to 5 = 0.5455
SALESMAN CIRCLING 10 CITIES
A salesman visits ten cities arranged in the form of a circle, spending a day in each. He proceeds clockwise from one city to the next, except whenever leaving the tenth city he may go to either the first or jump to the second city. How many days must elapse before his location is completely indeterminate, i.e., when he could be in any one of the ten cities?
- 83 days
On the 82nd day it could be definitely stated that he was not in the first city
COIN UNBALANCED
A coin is so unbalanced that you are likely to get two heads in two successive throws as you are to get tails in one. What is the probability of getting heads in a single throw?
0.618
TIC TAC TOE, DART PLAYERS
Three dart players threw simultaneously at a tic-tac-toe board, each hitting a different square. What is the probability that the three hits constituted a win at tic-tac-toe?
2/21 = 9.5%