Probability Spring 2015 Student Notes

1. In a game a player rolls a biased four-faced die. The probability of each possible score is shown below.

Score 1 2 3 4
1 2 1
Probability x
5 5 10

a) Find the value of x. b) Find E(X). c) The die is rolled twice. Find the
probability of obtaining two scores
of 3.

2. Consider the two-dice sum chart below. The random variable X represents the sum of the two numbers cubes.
First number cube a) The chart shows a total of 36 possible b) Determine the probability of rolling
outcomes. Place a single check mark on sum greater than 7. In other words, if we
1 2 3 4 5 6 all of the outcomes corresponding to a add the two numbers to get X, what is
sum of more than 7.
1
P( X  7) =
Second number cube

2
3 c) Suppose we know that Jeremy has d) For the denominator, first count the
rolled a number greater than 7. We now number of outcomes in which X  7 .
4 want to know the probability that he rolls
an even number given that he rolled a
5 number greater than 7. In other words,
6 we want to calculate
P( X is even | X  7) . The next steps
will help us with this question.
e) Now, looking only at the outcomes f) For the numerator, count the number g) Now, write the fraction, using the
which already have a check mark, of outcomes in which X  7 AND X is numerator from problem (f), and the
double-check those that are even. even. How many outcomes have a denominator from problem (d):
double-check mark?
P( X is even | X  7) =

3. A discrete random variable X has a probability distribution as shown in the table below.
x 0 1 2 3
P(X = x) 0.1 a 0.3 b
a) Find the value of a + b.

b) Given that E(X) =1.5, find the value of a and of b.