A probability problem by Prithwish Roy

Probability Level pending

There are n n boys and n 1 n-1 girls standing in a queue. Find the probability that the number of boys ahead of every girl is at least one more than the number of girls ahead of her.

Enter your answer by putting n = 19 n=19 .

0.3 2.6 0.5 0.1

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1 solution

Brian Moehring
Mar 11, 2017

The number of ways for n n boys and n 1 n-1 girls to queue is the binomial coefficient ( 2 n 1 n ) \binom{2n-1}{n}

The number of ways for them to queue such that the given condition is satisfied is the Catalan number C n = 1 n + 1 ( 2 n n ) C_n = \frac{1}{n+1}\binom{2n}{n} .

Therefore the probability of the condition being satisfies is 1 n + 1 ( 2 n n ) ( 2 n 1 n ) = 2 n + 1 \frac{\tfrac{1}{n+1}\binom{2n}{n}}{\binom{2n-1}{n}} = \frac{2}{n+1}

Setting n = 19 n=19 yields 2 19 + 1 = 0.1 \frac{2}{19+1} = \boxed{0.1}

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