ENEE 324 Solution Homework 01

1. (Peebles 1.1-6) A thermometer measures temperatures from −40◦ F to 130◦ F.

(a) State a universal set to describe temperature measurements.

Ω = {t | − 40 ≤ t ≤ 130}

(b) Specify a subset for measurements not exceeding water’s freezing point.

Ω = {t | − 40 ≤ t ≤ 32}

(c) Specify a subset for measurements exceeding the freezing point, but not exceeding 100◦ F.

Ω = {t | 32 < t ≤ 100}

2. (Peebles 1.2-3) A universal set, Ω, and two subsets, A and B, are given as

Ω = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12} A = {2, 4, 10} B = {4, 6, 8, 10}

Determine the following

(a) Ac = {6, 8, 12}

(b) A\B = {2} and B\A = {6, 8}
(c) A ∪ B = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10}
(d) A ∩ B = {4, 10}
(e) Ac ∩ B = {6, 8}

3. (Peebles 1.3-8) A single card is drawn from a 52-card deck.

(a) What is the probability the card is a jack?

There are four jacks in the deck so

P ({Jack}) = 4/52 = 1/13

(b) What is the probability the card is a 5 or smaller?

P ({card ≤ 5}) = P ({card = 2}) + P ({card = 3}) + P ({card = 4}) + P ({card = 5})
= 1/13 + 1/13 + 1/13 + 1/13
P ({card ≤ 5}) = 4/13

(c) What is the probability the card is a red 10?

There are only 2 red tens so

P ({red ten}) = 2/52 = 1/26

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4. (Fitz 2.7) In a particular magnetic disk drive, bits are written and read individually. The
probability of a bit error is PB (E) = 10−8 . Bit errors are independent from bit to bit. In a
computer application, bits are grouped into 16 bit words. What is the probability that an
application word will be in error (at least one of the 16 bits is in error) when the bits are read
from this magnetic disk drive?

P (word error) = 1 − P (correct word) = 1 − [1 − PB (E)]16 = 1.599 × 10−7

5. (Pap 2-4) Show that if P (A) = P (B) = P (A ∩ B) then P [(A ∩ B c ) ∪ (B ∩ Ac )] = 0.

Note that A = (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ B c ) and (A ∩ B) ∩ (A ∩ B c ) = ∅ so

P (A) = P (AB) + P (AB c ) =⇒ P (AB c ) = P (A) − P (AB) = 0

P (B) = P (AB) + P (Ac B) =⇒ P (Ac B) = P (B) − P (AB) = 0

Now since (Ac ∩ B) ∩ (A ∩ B c ) = ∅ we have

P [(A ∩ B c ) ∪ (B ∩ Ac )] = P (A ∩ B c ) + P (B ∩ Ac ) = 0 + 0 = 0.

6. (Mos 31) In a group of 36 people, what is the probability that at least two people share the
same birth date. Only consider month and day, ignore leap year, and assume all birthdays
are equally likely.
Note that
P (≥ 2 people match) = 1 − P (all dates unique)
For generality, assume N dates and r people. There are N different birthdates for each of the
r people, so there are N r total possible ways N birthdays can be assigned to r people. If we
try to pick r dates without duplication, we have N choices for the first date, N − 1 choices
for the second, and N − r + 1 ways for the r-th date. Hence,
N!
P (≥ 2 people match) = 1 − P (all dates unique) = 1 −
N r (N− r)!

Matlab cannot handle 365!, so we need a smarter formula for implementation,

N (N − 1) · · · (N − r + 1)
P (≥ 2 people match) = 1 −
Nr
N −1 N −2 N −r+1
    
= 1− ··· .
N N N
With N = 365 and r = 36 we have

P (≥ 2 people match) = 0.832182

This is somewhat surprising since 36 people is only about 10% of the possibe dates.

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7. (Pap 2-5) Prove the following relation

P (A ∪ B ∪ C) = P (A) + P (B) + P (C) − P (AB) − P (AC) − P (BC) + P (ABC)

where we have used the shorthand notation of AB for A ∩ B.

We already know that for any events E and F ,

P (E ∪ F ) = P (E) + P (F ) − P (E ∩ F ).

Therefore,

P (A ∪ B ∪ C) = P [A ∪ (B ∪ C)] = P (A) + P (B ∪ C) − P [A ∩ (B ∪ C)] .

Repeating this for P (B ∪ C) we have

P (A ∪ B ∪ C) = P (A) + P (B) + P (C) − P (B ∩ C) − P [A ∩ (B ∪ C)] .

Now use the same result on the final term

P [A ∩ (B ∪ C)] = P [(A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ C)]

= P (A ∩ B) + P (A ∩ C) − P [(A ∩ B) ∩ (A ∩ C)]
P [A ∩ (B ∪ C)] = P (A ∩ B) + P (A ∩ C) − P (A ∩ B ∩ C) .

Hence,

P (A ∪ B ∪ C) = P (A) + P (B) + P (C) − P (AB) − P (AC) − P (BC) + P (ABC).

This is illustrated in the following Venn diagram.

Ω
A

A∩B A∩C
A∩B∩C
B C
B∩C

If we just took P (A) + P (B) + P (C), the white areas would each be counted once, the lightly
shaded areas counted twice, and the heavily shaded area counted three times. When we
subtract out P (A ∩ B), P (A ∩ C), and P (B ∩ C), we completely remove the contribution of
the heavily shaded portion. Therefore, we need to add P (A ∩ B ∩ C).

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 Additional Problems. Do Not Turn In!!

8. (Peebles 1.1-5) State every possible subset of the letters {a, b, c, d}.

{a, b, c, d}, {a, b, c}, {a, b, d}, {a, c, d}, {b, c, d}, {a, b}, {a, c},
{a, d}, {b, c}, {b, d}, {c, d}, {a}, {b}, {c}, {d}, ∅

Note that there are 24 = 16 possible subsets of a 4 element set.

9. (Peebles 1.3-2) In a game of dice, a “shooter” can win outright if the sum of the two numbers
showing up is either 7 or 11. What is the probability of winning outright?
There are 36 possible mutually exclusive outcomes each with probability 1/36. Outcomes
that produce a total of 7 are {(1,6) (2,5) (3,4) (4,3) (5,2) (6,1)}, and outcomes that produce
a total of 11 are {(5,6) (6,5)}. Therefore,

P ({Sum is 7 or 11}) = 8/36 = 2/9

10. (Peebles 1.3-3) A pointer is spun on a fair wheel of chance having its periphery labeled from
0 to 100.

(a) What is the sample space for this experiment?

Ω = {ω |0 ≤ ω ≤ 100}

(b) What is the probability that the pointer will stop between 20 and 35?
35 − 20
P ({Stop between 20 and 35} = = 0.15
100

(c) What is the probability that the pointer will stop on 58?
There are infinitely many equally likely outcomes, so the probability of any one outcome
is zero.
P ({Stop on 58} = 0

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11. (BH&M 2.2) Ten people enter an elevator at the basement of a building that has ten floors
(not counting the basement). It is equally likely that a person exits on any of the ten floors,
and each person exits on a floor independently of the other people. What is the probability
that exactly one person exits the elevator on each of the ten floors?
Solution 1
Let Fk be the event that exactly one person exits on floor k, and use conitional probability.

P (F10 , F9 , . . . , F1 ) = P (F10 |F9 , . . . , F1 ) P (F9 , . . . , F1 )

= P (F10 |F9 , . . . , F1 ) P (F9 |F8 , . . . , F1 ) P (F8 , . . . , F1 )
= P (F10 |F9 , . . . , F1 ) P (F9 |F8 , . . . , F1 ) . . . P (F2 |F1 ) P (F1 )
10
Y
P (F10 , F9 , . . . , F1 ) = P (Fk |Fk−1 . . . , F1 ) .
k=1

When we reach the first floor there are 10 people in the elevator and each one exits with
probability 1/10 because there are 10 possible floors on which to exit,
! 1  9 1  9 9
10 1 9 1 9 9
 
P (F1 ) = = 10 = .
1 10 10 10 10 10

If exactly one person exited on floor 1, when we reach the second floor each one of the
remaining 9 people exits with probability 1/9 because there are 9 possible floors,
!  1  8  8
9 1 8 8
P (F2 |F1 ) = = .
1 9 9 9

If k − 1 people exited on floors 1 to k − 1, when we reach the k-th floor each one of the
remaining 10 − k people exits with probability 1/(k − 1),
!10−k
10 − k
P (Fk |Fk−1 , . . . , F1 ) = .
11 − k

Using this we have

10
!10−k 9  n
10 − k n
= 3.6288 × 10−4 .
Y Y
P (F10 , F9 , . . . , F1 ) = =
k=1 11 − k n=0 n+1

Solution 2
For a simpler solution, note that there are 1010 possible outcomes and (10!) possible ways to
order the 10 people; therefore,
10!
P (One person on each floor) = 10
= 3.6288 × 10−4 .
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