Professor's probability!

An absent minded professor lost his latest set of question papers. In a panic, he decided to give his students marks chosen from a uniform distribution of the reals from 0 to 100.

But there is a problem. Two of the students in his class are identical twins, who study together and so get the similar marks. If their marks differ by more than 20 \large 20 , they will suspect that something is wrong.

The probability that the professor does not attract suspicion can be expressed in the form a b \large \frac{a}{b} , where a \large a and b \large b are positive coprime integers, determine the value of a + b \large a+b .

Details and Assumptions
The marks need not be integers, they are simply real numbers. The maximum marks in the test were 100 \large 100 , and minimum 0 \large 0 .


The answer is 34.

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1 solution

Satvik Golechha
Apr 30, 2014

See this image first.

Professor's Probability! Professor's Probability!

This problem is best handled geometrically. The probability of two twins' scores coming within 20 of one another is simply the area of shaded region divided by the total area of the entire square. The two non shaded regions, if put together, form another square whose area is 16 25 \large \frac{16}{25} , so our ratio is 1 16 25 \large 1-\frac{16}{25} , which is equal to 9 25 \large \frac{9}{25} . Thus, our answer is 9 + 25 = 34 \large 9+25=34

Freaking awesome problem! I did exact opposite and got 41 though. D:

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 1 month ago

Which book did you take this question from?? Nice question!

Pankaj Joshi - 7 years ago

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Yup! Tell us @Satvik Golechha

Krishna Ar - 7 years ago

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One of my friends asked me this question. I've just decorated it a bit.

Satvik Golechha - 7 years ago

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@Satvik Golechha Ok!..Who is that genius... :P?

Krishna Ar - 7 years ago

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