Painting golf balls

Three golf balls are in a bag.

You do the following six times:

  • Take one out at random
  • Paint it and let it dry
  • Return it to the bag

In the end, the probability that each ball receives two coats of paint is a b \dfrac{a}{b} where a a and b b are coprime positive integers.

What is a + b a + b ?


Image credit : http://www.readingbrightstart.org


The answer is 91.

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3 solutions

Geoff Pilling
Nov 20, 2018

There are 3 6 3^6 ways the balls could have been chosen for painting (taking order into account)

Of these there are ( 6 2 ) \binom{6}{2} ways that one of them could have received 2 coats of paint. And the remaining two could have received 2 coats in ( 4 2 ) \binom{4}{2} ways.

So, the total probability of all three receiving 2 coats of paint is:

P = ( 6 2 ) ( 4 2 ) 3 6 = 10 81 P = \dfrac{\binom{6}{2}\cdot\binom{4}{2}}{3^6} = \dfrac{10}{81}

10 + 81 = 91 10+81 = \boxed{91}

Jeremy Galvagni
Nov 21, 2018

There are 3 6 = 729 3^{6}=729 ways to choose the balls.

Of these, there are 6 ! 2 ! 2 ! 2 ! = 90 \frac{6!}{2!\cdot 2!\cdot 2!}=90 arrangements of AABBCC.

90 729 = 10 81 \frac{90}{729}=\frac{10}{81} , so the solution is 10 + 81 = 91 10+81=\boxed{91}

Jordan Cahn
Nov 29, 2018

Number the balls 1, 2, and 3. The probability of choosing ball 1 twice is ( 6 2 ) ( 1 3 ) 2 ( 2 3 ) 4 = 15 × 1 9 × 16 81 = 80 243 {6\choose 2}\left(\frac{1}{3}\right)^2\left(\frac{2}{3}\right)^4 = 15\times\frac{1}{9}\times\frac{16}{81} = \frac{80}{243}

Of the remaining two balls, the probability of choosing ball 2 twice is then ( 4 2 ) ( 1 2 ) 2 ( 1 2 ) 2 = 6 × 1 4 × 1 4 = 3 8 {4\choose 2}\left(\frac{1}{2}\right)^2\left(\frac{1}{2}\right)^2 = 6\times\frac{1}{4}\times\frac{1}{4} = \frac{3}{8}

The probability of both these events happening is 80 243 × 3 8 = 10 81 \frac{80}{243}\times\frac{3}{8} = \frac{10}{81}

10 + 81 = 91 10+81 = \boxed{91}

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