ENEE324 (Spring 2021): Professor Shayman

Assignment 1

1. A random experiment consists of selecting two balls in succession from an

urn containing two black balls and one white ball.

(a) Specify the sample space for this experiment.

(b) Suppose that the experiment is modified so that the ball is imme-
diately put back into the urn after the first selection. What is the
sample space now?
(c) What is the relative frequency of the outcome (white, white) in a
large number of repetitions of the experiment in part (a)? In part
(b)?
(d) Does the outcome of the second draw from the urn depend in any
way on the outcome of the first draw in either of these experiments?
2. A die is tossed twice and the number of dots facing up is counted and
noted in the order of occurrence.
(a) Find the sample space.
(b) Find the set A corresponding to the event “total number of dots
showing is even.”
(c) Find the set B corresponding to the event “both dice are even.”
(d) Does A imply B or does B imply A?
(e) Find A ∩ B c and describe this event in words.
(f) Let C correspond to the event “number of dots in die differ by 1.”
Find A ∩ C.

3. A random experiment has sample space Ω = {a, b, c}. Suppose that

P ({a, c}) = 5/8 and P ({b, c}) = 7/8. Use the axioms of probability to
find the probabilities of the elementary events (events containing single
elements).
4. Let the events A and B have P (A) = x, P (B) = y, and P (A∩B) = z. Use
Venn diagrams to find P (Ac ∪B c ), P (A∩B c ), P (Ac ∪B), and P (Ac ∩B c ).

5. A number x is selected at random in the interval [−1, 1]. Let the events
A = {x < 0}, B = {|x − 0.5| < 1}, and C = {x > 0.75}.
(a) Find the probabilities of B, A ∩ B, and A ∩ C.
(b) Find the probabilities of A∪B, A∪C, and A∪B ∪C, first, by directly
evaluating the sets and then their probabilities, and second, by using
the appropriate axioms or their corollaries.
6. Let Ω be a sample space with uncountably many elements. For each
positive integer n, let Ωn = {ω ∈ Ω| P (ω) ≥ 1/n}.
(a) Show that the number of elements in Ωn can be no more than n.
(b) Show that
∞
[
{ω ∈ Ω| P (ω) > 0} = Ωn
n=1

(c) Show that (a) and (b) together imply that the number of elements in
the sample space with nonzero probability is either finite or count-
ably infinite. (In other words, the number of elements with nonzero
probability cannot be uncountable.)
7. (a) Find P [A|B] if A ∩ B = ∅, if A ⊂ B, and if B ⊂ A.
(b) Show that if P [A|B] > P [A], then P [B|A] > P [B]. Comment.
8. A number x is selected at random in the interval [−1, 1]. Let B be the
event {|x − 1/2| < 1} and let C be the event {x > 3/4}. Find P [B|C] and
P [C|B].