THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS AND ACTUARIAL SCIENCE

STAT2901 Probability and Statistics: Foundations of Actuarial Science

Tutorial 1

Combinatorial Probability
1. Selection of r from n distinguishable objects
With replacement Without replacement
n!
Ordered nr
(n − r)!
   
n+r−1 (n + r − 1)! n n!
Unordered = =
r r!(n − 1)! r r!(n − r)!

2. Partition n distinguishable objects into k groups of size n1 , n2 , . . . , nk respectively, with

n1 + n2 + · · · + nk = n. The number of ways is given by the multinomial coefficient
 
n n!
= .
n1 , n2 , . . . , nk n1 !n2 ! . . . nk !

3. Binomial Series Theorem

The binomial series is the Taylor series for f (x) = (1 + x)α , where |x| < 1 and α ∈ R,
i.e.
α(α − 1) 2 α(α − 1)(α − 2) 3
(1 + x)α = 1 + αx + x + x + ··· .
2! 3!
Special cases:

(a) Binomial series (when α is a positive integer n):

n  
n
X n
(1 + x) = xr .
r=0
r

(b) Negative binomial series:

∞  
−n
X n+r−1
(1 − x) = xr .
r=0
r

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 (c) Multinomial series:
 
X n
n
(x1 + x2 + · · · + xk ) = xn1 xn2 . . . xnk k .
n1 , n2 , . . . , nk 1 2
(n1 ,...,nk )
n1 +···+nk =n

4. Combinatorial Probability
The sample space Ω is defined to be the set of all possible outcomes from an experiment.
Let A be a subset of Ω, which is called an event. Assume that Ω is a finite set and each
outcome ω in Ω has equal chance of occurring, i.e. for any ω ∈ Ω,
1
P ({ω}) = .
number of outcomes in Ω
Then, the probability of an event A is defined by
number of outcomes in A
P (A) = .
number of outcomes in Ω

Exercises
1. Find the number of integer solutions to the following equations.

(a) x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 + x5 + x6 = 22 where xi ’s are positive.

(b) x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 + x5 + x6 = 20 where xi ’s are non-negative.
(c) x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 + x5 + x6 < 24 where xi ’s are positive.
(d) x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 + x5 + x6 = 26 where xi ’s are positive with x2 > 3 and 3 ≤ x5 < 6.

2. Find the number of ways to select an 11-member soccer team and a 5-member basketball
team from a class of 30 students if

(a) nobody can be on both teams;

(b) any number of students can be on both teams;
(c) at most n students can be on both teams.

3. Consider the letter arrangements of the word CALENDAR. Determine the probability
that C and A are together and N and D are separated.

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4. Use the algebraic method to solve the following problems.

(a) There are 3 green balls, 2 blue balls, 1 red ball and 17 yellow balls in a bag. All the
balls are identical apart from their colours. Suppose 4 balls are randomly drawn
without replacement from the bag. Find the number of distinct combinations of
these 4 balls.

(b) Five numbers are randomly drawn from {1, 2, . . . , 9} with replacement. Determine
the probability that the sum of these five numbers is equal to 30.

5. Recall: How many ways can we split 8 into a sum of positive integers?