• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

Probability question involving poker machines - need help (1 Viewer)

blackops23

Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2010
Messages
428
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
Hi guys, maybe its because I don't have enough experience on the poker machines, but I'm having a bit of trouble with this question, even though it's a simple 2u question.

Q. On a three-wheel poker machine, there are 10 symbols on each wheel.
There are:
5 lemons on the first wheel.
3 lemons on the 2nd wheel.
2 lemons on the last wheel.


(b) What is the probability that the 2 outside wheels will show a lemon with something different on the middle wheel.


I got P(LNL) = 7/100, where L is the lemon, and N is no lemon.

I got this because:
P(LNL) = P(lemon on wheel 1) * P(no lemon on wheel 2) * P(lemon on wheel 3)
= 0.5 * 0.7 * 0.2
= 0.07

But the answer was P(E) = 1/10 = 0.1

So why did I get 0.07, while the answer was 0.1, did I misinterpret the question or did I do some error in my working?

Help greatly appreciated,

Thanks
 

mitchy_boy

blue
Joined
Jun 8, 2009
Messages
1,464
Location
m83
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
The answer could be wrong. My text book was always wrong for probability. What you've done seems right to me, although this was my worst topic in 2unit...
 

blackops23

Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2010
Messages
428
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
Anyone else got anything, perhaps if I did something wrong, or misunderstood the question?
 
Joined
Jan 13, 2011
Messages
354
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
So it's a problem on behalf of Jones and Couchmann? Because this is the first mistake I've seen in the book...
quite possibly its a mistake, I dont really know where they could have got 1/10 :S and its not like a question involving arrangements , there is only one way to get what they are after in the problem statement
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top