Event A Event B

There are 5 apartments. One has 2 men, one has a woman and 2 men, one has 2 women and 3 men, one has 6 women and 1 man, and one has a married couple (one man, one woman). If I knock on the door and a woman answers, what is the probability that I've reached the one with the married couple?

The answer is a/b, enter your answer as a + b.


The answer is 544.

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2 solutions

Venture Hi
Apr 12, 2014

If the apartments are A1, A2, A3, A4, and A5, we're looking for P(A5|W), where W is woman. This should be equal to P(A5 and W)/P(W). Meaning what is the probability that we are at the married couple's apartment given that a woman has answered the door.

(1) P(A5 and W) = (1/5)(1/2) = 1/10.

P(W) = P(A1 and W) + P(A2 and W) + P(A3 and W) + P(A4 and W) + P(A5 and W).

Since there are no women in A1,

P(A1 and W) = 0.

P(A2 and W) = (1/5)*(1/3)

P(A3 and W) = (1/5)*(2/5)

P(A4 and W) = (1/5)*(6/7)

P(A5 and W) = (1/5)*(1/2)

This gives P(W) = 0 + (1/5)(1/3) + (1/5)(2/5) + (1/5)(6/7) + (1/5)(1/2) = 439/1050

Combining this last result with (1) gives

P(A5|W) = (1/10)/(439/1050) = 105/439.

Kevin Bourrillion
Apr 25, 2014

The problem neglects to specify the genders of the married couple, or the probability distribution of M/F, M/M, F/F in that locality, so it is unsolvable.

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