qa2section2

course Mth 151

If your solution to stated problem does not match the given solution, you should self-critique per instructions athttp://vhcc2.vhcc.edu/dsmith/geninfo/labrynth_created_fall_05/levl1_22/levl2_81/file3_259.htm.

Your solution, attempt at solution.

If you are unable to attempt a solution, give a phrase-by-phrase interpretation of the problem along with a statement of what you do or do not understand about it. This response should be given, based on the work you did in completing the assignment, before you look at the given solution.

005. Binary probabilities

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Question: `q001. Note that there are 10 questions in this assignment.

List the possible outcomes if a fair coin is flipped 2 times.

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Your solution:

there are 4 possible outcomes: HH, TT, HT, and TH.

confidence rating:

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Given Solution: There are 2 coins. Call one of them the first and the other the second coin.

We can get Heads on the first and Heads on the second, which we will designate HH. Or we can get Heads on the first and Tails on the second, which we will designate HT. The other possibilities can be designated TH and TT.

Thus there are 4 possible outcomes: HH, HT, TH and TT.

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Question: `q002. List the possible outcomes if a fair coin is flipped 3 times.

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Your solution:

said question would have as well 4 possible outcomes but this time for posterity's sake. We will need to write the list out 2 times over to give us a place to add a third portion to each equation.

HHH, HHT, HTH, HTT

THH, THT, TTH, TTT

confidence rating:

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Given Solution: The possible results for the first 2 flips are HH, HT, TH and TT. We can obtain all possible results for 3 flips by appending either H or T to this list.

We start out by writing the list twice:

HH, HT, TH, TT

HH, HT, TH, TT

We then append H to each outcome in the first row, and T to each outcome in the second. We obtain

HHH, HHT, HTH, HTT

THH, THT, TTH, TTT

Note that this process shows clearly why the number of possibilities doubles when the number of coins increases by one. With two coins we had 4 possible outcomes and with three coins we had 8 outcomes, twice as many as with two coins.

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Question: `q003. List the possible outcomes if a fair coin is flipped 4 times.

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Your solution:

this answer follows the particular pattern or set of the last one; 2 lists filled in with yet another letter to account for the 4th flip of the coin.

HHHH, HHHT, HHTH, HHTT, HTHH, HTTH, HTTT

THHH, THHT, THTH, THTT, TTHH, TTTH, TTTT

confidence rating:

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Given Solution: We can follow the same strategy as in the preceding problem. We first list twice all the possibilities for 3 coins:

HHH, HHT, HTH, HTT, THH, THT, TTH, TTT

HHH, HHT, HTH, HTT, THH, THT, TTH, TTT

Then we append H to the front of one list and T to the front of the other:

HHHH, HHHT, HHTH, HHTT, HTHH, HTHT, HTTH, HTTT

THHH, THHT, THTH, THTT, TTHH, TTHT, TTTH, TTTT

Again we see why the number of possibilities doubles when the number of coins increases by one. With three coins we had 8 possible outcomes and with four coins we had 16 outcomes, twice as many as with two coins.

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Question: `q004. If a fair coin is flipped 4 times, how many of the outcomes contain exactly two 'heads'?

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Your solution:

(1,2), (1,3), (1,4), (2,3), (2,4), (3,4)

confidence rating:

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Given Solution: The two 'heads' can occur in positions 1 and 2 (HHTT), 1 and 3 (HTHT), 1 and 4 (HTTH), 2 and 3 (THHT), 2 and 4 (THTH), or 3 and 4 (TTHH). These six possibilities can be expressed by the sets {1, 2}, {1, 3}, {1, 4}, {2, 3}, {2, 4}, {3, 4}.

Thus the possibilities are represented by sets of two numbers chosen from the set {1, 2, 3, 4}. When choosing 2 numbers from a set of four, there are 4 * 3 / 2 possible combinations. Since in this case it doesn't matter in which order the two positions are picked, this will be the number of possible outcomes with exactly two 'heads'. The number of possibilities is thus C(4, 2) = 6.

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Question: `q005. If a fair coin is flipped 7 times, how many of the outcomes contain exactly three 'heads'?

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Your solution:

for this problem we will use the counting method with factorials. C(7,3)=7*6*5/3! = 35

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Given Solution: The possible positions for the three 'heads' can be numbered 1 through 7. We have to choose three positions out of these seven possibilities, and the order in which our choices occur is not important.

This is equivalent to choosing three numbers from the set {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} without regard for order. This can be done in C(7,3) = 7 * 6 * 5 / 3! = 35 ways.

There are thus 35 ways to obtain 3 'heads' on 7 flips.

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Question: `q006. If we flip a fair coin 6 times, in how many ways can we get no 'heads'?

In how many ways can we get exactly one 'head'?

In how many ways can we get exactly two 'heads'?

In how many ways can we get exactly three 'heads'?

In how many ways can we get exactly four 'heads'?

In how many ways can we get exactly five 'heads'?

In how many ways can we get exactly six 'heads'?

In how many ways can we get exactly seven 'heads'?

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Your solution:

0 heads=(6,0)=1

1 head = C(6,1)= 6

2 heads= C(6,2)=15

3 heads= C(6,3)=20

4 heads=(6,4)= 15

5 heads=(6,5)=6

6 heads=(6,6)=1

this demonstrates the bell curve involved in statistics and probability, the numbers

1,6,15,20,15,6,1 all represent a gradual climb and fall of nemeric probability in the various solutions.

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Given Solution: The number of ways to get no 'heads' is C(6,0) = 1.

The number of ways to get exactly one 'head' is C(6,1) = 6.

The number of ways to get exactly two 'heads' is C(6,2) = 15.

The number of ways to get exactly three 'heads' is C(6,3) = 20.

The number of ways to get exactly four 'heads' is C(6,4) = 15.

The number of ways to get exactly five 'heads' is C(6,5) = 6.

The number of ways to get exactly six 'heads' is C(6,6) = 1.

These numbers form the n = 6 row of Pascal's Triangle:

1 6 15 20 15 6 1

See your text for a description of Pascal's Triangle. Note also that these numbers add up to 64, which is 2^6, the number of possible outcomes when a coin is flipped 6 times.

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Question: `q007. List all the subsets of the set {a, b}.

Then do the same for the set {a,b,c}.

Then do the same for the set {a,b,c,d}.

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Your solution:

there are four subsets of (a,b) = empty set {}, {a}, {b}, {ab}; the subsets for {a,b,c} are {}, {a}, {b}, {c}, {a,b}, {a,c}, {b,c}, & {a,b,c}; the subsets for {a,b,c, d} are {}, {a}, {b}, {c}, {a,b}, {a,c}, {a,d}, {b,c}, {b,d}, {c,d}, {a,b,c}, {b,c,d}, {a,c,d}, & {a,b,c,d}.

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Given Solution: The set {a, b} has four subsets: the empty set { }, {a}, {b} and {a, b}.

These four sets are also subsets of {a, b, c}, and if we add the element c to each of these four sets we get four different subsets of {a, b, c}.

The subsets are therefore

{}{ }, {a}, {b}, {a, b}, {c}, {a, c}, {b, c} and {a, b, c}.

We see that the number of subsets doubles when the number of elements in the set increases by one.

This seems similar to the way the number of possible outcomes when flipping coins doubles when we add a coin. The connection is as follows:

To form a subset we can go through the elements of the set one at a time, and for each element we can either choose to include it or not. This could be done by flipping a coin once for each element of the set, and including the element if the coin shows 'heads'. Two different sequences of 'heads' and 'tails' would result in two different subsets, and every subset would correspond to exactly one sequence of 'heads' and 'tails'. Thus the number of possible subsets is identical to the number of outcomes from the coin flips.

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Question: `q008. How many subsets would there be of the set {a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h}?

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Your solution: The given set as is divised into binary subsets would result in the the key binary number being taken to a given exponent equal to the number of variables. In this case the total number of variables is 8 and the set, being binary, is in groups of two; thus the probability of the aforementioned subset is 2 to the nth power. Therefore, in this problem the solution would be 2^8 = 256.

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Given Solution: There are 2 possible subsets of the set {a}, the subsets being { } and {a, b}.

The number doubles with each additional element.

It follows that for a set of 2 elements there are 2 * 2 subsets (double the 2 subsets of a one-element set), double this or 2 * 2 * 2 subsets of a set with 3 elements, double this or 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 subsets of a set with 4 elements, etc..

There are thus 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 = 256 subsets of the given set, which has 8 elements. This number is also written as 2^8.

}{More generally there are 2^n subsets of any set with n elements.

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Question: `q009. How many 4-element subsets would there be of the set {a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h}?

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Your solution: There are eight varibles & when subsetted into groups of four; therefore, the solution is the combonatorial function of eight factorial minus the multiple of the four factorial quantity divided by four factorial; C(8,4) = (8*7*6*5)/4! = 8*7*6*5/4*3*2*1 = 70

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Given Solution: To form a 4-elements subset of the given 8-elements set, we have to choose 4 elements from the 8. Since the order of elements in a set does not matter, order will not matter in our choice.

The number of ways to choose 4 elements from a set of 8, without regard for order, is C(8, 4) = 8 * 7 * 6 * 5 / ( 4 * 3 * 2 * 1) = 70.

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Question: `q010. How many subsets of the set {a,b,c,d} contain 4 elements?

How many subsets of the set {a,b,c,d} contain 3 elements?

How many subsets of the set {a,b,c,d} contain 2 elements?

How many subsets of the set {a,b,c,d} contain 1 elements?

How many subsets of the set {a,b,c,d} contain no elements?

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Your solution: For the set labeled {a,b,c,d} that contains 4 elements there is 1 solution= {a,b,c,d} C(4,4)

For the same set, that contains 3 elements there are 3 solutions= {a,b,c}, {b,c,d}, {a,c,d}

C(4,3)

For the same set, that contains 2 elements there are 6 solutions= {a,b}, {a,c}, {a,d}, {b,c}, {b,d}, {c,d} C(4,2)

For the same set, that contain 1 element there are 4 solutions= {a}, {b}, {c}, {d} C(4,1)

For the same set, that contains no elements there is 1 solution= {} C(4,0)

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Given Solution: The number of 4-element subsets is C(4,4) = 1.

The number of 3-element subsets is C(4,3) = 4.

The number of 2-element subsets is C(4,2) = 6.

The number of 1-element subsets is C(4,1) = 4.

The number of 0-element subsets is C(4,0) = 1.

We note that these numbers form the n = 4 row 1 4 6 4 1 of Pascal's Triangle, and that they add up to 2^4 = 16, the number of possible subsets of a 4-element set.

005. Binary probabilities

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&#Good responses. Let me know if you have questions. &#