SOLUTIONS OF PROBLEMS FOR QUIZ 1

KARTICK ADHIKARI

Problem 1:A pair of dice are rolled. what is the probability that the second die
lands on the higher value than does the first?
Solution: The sample space of the experiment is
:= {(1 , 2 )|1 , 2 {1, 2, . . . , 6}},
and the given event is
A := {(1 , 2 ) |1 < 2 }.
Since || = 36 (number of elements in ) and |A| = 15. Therefore
P(A) =

15
5
|A|
=
=
.
||
36
12

Problem 2:An urn contains 3 red and 7 black ball. Players A and B withdraw
balls from the urn consecutively until a red ball is selected. Find the probability that
A selects the red ball.
Solution: The sample space of this experiment can be written as
= {(1 , 2 , . . . , 10 )|i {0, 1} for i = 1, 2, . . . , 10 and

10
X

i = 3}.

Here i = 1 means red ball is chosen in i-th turn and i = 0
means black ball is
chosen in i-th turn. The number of elements in is || = 10
3 = 120 (the number
of ways to put three 1s in ten places). Now define the following events,
A1 = { |1 = 1},
A2 = { |i = 0 for i = 1, 2 and 3 = 1},
A3 = { |i = 0 for i = 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 = 1},
A4 = { |i = 0 for i = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 = 1}.
The events A1 , A2 , A3 , A4 mean that the first red ball appeared in 1st, 3rd, 5-th and
7-th turn respectively. Again according to our problem first person (A) will win if
he withdraws red ball before the second person (B) withdraws red ball. Therefore
the given event is
E := A1 t A2 t A3 t A4 .
Date: August 18, 2014.
1

KARTICK ADHIKARI

It is clear that the events A1 , A2 , A3 and A4 are disjoint events. Therefore the
number of elements in E is
|E| =
=
=

|A1 | + |A2 | + |A3 | + |A4 |

       
9
7
5
3
+
+
+
2
2
2
2
36 + 21 + 10 + 3 = 70.

9
2

(Here |A1 | =
because there are nine places and we have to put two 1s, similarly
others). Therefore the probability of given event is
P(E) =

|E|
70
7
=
=
.
||
120
12

Problem 3:Use induction to generalize Bonferronis inequality to n events. Namely,

Show that
P(E1 E2 En ) P(E1 ) + + P(En ) (n 1).

Solution: First we prove that this is true for n = 2.

Basis step: We know that P(E1 ) + P(E2 ) P(E1 E2 ) = P(E1 E2 ) 1. Which
implies that
P(E1 E2 ) P(E1 ) + P(E2 ) 1.
Inductive hypothesis: We assume that the inequality is true for n = k, i.e.,
P(E1 E2 Ek ) P(E1 ) + + P(Ek ) (k 1).
Inductive step: We prove that the inequality is true for n = k + 1.
P(E1 E2 Ek+1 )

P(E1 E2 Ek ) + P(Ek+1 ) 1 (by Basis step)

P(E1 ) + + P(Ek ) (k 1) + P(Ek+1 ) 1(Inductive hypothesis)

P(E1 ) + + P(Ek+1 ) (k + 1 1).

Hence the inequality is true for n = k + 1 when the inequality is true for n = k.
Therefore by Principle of induction we can say the inequality is true for all n.
Problem 4: Consider an experiment whose sample space consists of a countably
infinite number of points. Show that not all points can be equally likely. Can all
points have positive probability of occurring?
Solution: Suppose P({i}) = c for i = 1, 2, . . . for some positive constant c. Then
Pd1/ce+1
P({i}) = (d1/ce + 1).c > 1. Which contradicts the fact that total probai=1
bility is 1. Hence not all points can be equally likely.
Yes. All points can have positive probability of occurring. For example we can
define P({i}) = 21i , probability of occurring i for i = 1, 2, . . ..

SOLUTIONS OF PROBLEMS FOR QUIZ 1

T
Problem 5:Show that if P(Ai ) = 1 for all i 1, then P( i=1 Ai ) = 1.
Solution: Since P(Ai ) = 1, hence P(Aci ) = 0. Now we have

\
[
c
P(( Ai ) ) = P( Aci )
i=1

i=1

P(Aci ) = 0.

i=1

T
T
Therefore P( i=1 Ai ) = 1 P(( i=1 Ai )c ) 1. Hence the result.