Answers for the Practice First Test

Mathematics 3C

1.   (a)   560.
(b)   12.

2.   (a)   3/11.
(b)   3/44.

3.   8%. (The probability of smoking is 0.1).

4.   (a)   rs + 1 + rq - r - q.
(b)   rs/(1 + rs + rq - r - q).

5.   (a)   7.
(b)   11.
(c)   a = 1/sqrt{11} and b = -7/sqrt{11} is one solution.

6.   (a)   2 2/3.
(b)   16/27.

7.   Notation: The complement of B will be written here as B';
the intersection of A and B will be written A n B;
the union of A and B will be written A u B.

We seek to show that P(A n B') = P(A)P(B').

Here is one way to do this problem. For independent events we have P(B|A) = P(B) and hence
P(A n B') = P(A)P(B'|A)
   = P(A)[1 - P(B|A)]
   = P(A)[1 - P(B)]   by independence
   = P(A)P(B').

Here is another way to do this problem.
P(A n B') = P(A) - P(A n B)   (see below)
   = P(A) - P(A)P(B)   by independence of A and B
   = P(A)[1 - P(B)]   by algebra
   = P(A)P(B'),   which shows independence of A and B'.
The reason for the first step is that A is the union of the two disjoint sets A n B' and A n B (imagine a Venn diagram here), and hence P(A) = P(A n B') + P(A n B).