There are two brothers Ram and Shyam. There are 4 pair of socks. 1 green, 1 blue, 1 red and 1 black pair. All 8 socks are well mixed in a box. Both brothers are going to party and is getting ready but when they were just going to pick out socks , electricity goes out. Now they pick socks at random alternatively 2 times each. What's the probability of no one getting right pair?
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Let Ram pick first, (it doesn't matter which color at this point). Now there is a probability of 7 1 that Shyam will pick the other sock of the same color that Ram chose, in which case no matter what their second picks are neither will end up with a matched pair.
Now suppose Shyam picks a sock of a different color than his brother picked, an event that will occur with probability 7 6 . Then if Ram picks the other sock of the color Shyam first chose, (an event that will occur with probability 6 1 ), then neither will end up with a matched pair no matter what Shyam's second pick is. If, however, Ram's second pick differs in color from the first two chosen, (an event that will occur with probability 6 4 given that Shyam's first pick was of a different color than Ram's first pick), Shyam will have a probability of 5 4 of choosing a sock that does not match his first pick.
So putting these pieces together, the probability that neither brother ends up with a matching pair of socks is
7 1 + 7 6 ∗ 6 1 + 7 6 ∗ 6 4 ∗ 5 4 = 7 2 + 3 5 1 6 = 3 5 2 6 = 0 . 7 4 3 to 3 decimal places.