My tryst with destiny

Dei shanmugam edra vandiya

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Q4

4. John wrote a phone number on a note that was later lost. John can remember that the number had 7 digits, the digit 1 appeared in the last three places and 0 did not appear at all. What is the probability that the phone number contains at least two prime digits?

a) 15/16
b) 11/16
c) 11/12
d) ½
e) 5/8

2 Comments:

  • At 7:33 AM , Blogger kart said...

    11/16

     
  • At 1:20 AM , Blogger Ramkumar said...

    The best answer is B.
    Since 1 appears exactly three times, we can solve for the other four digits only. For every digit we can choose out of 8 digits only (without 1 and 0). Since we have 4 prime digits (2, 3, 5, 7) and 4 non-prime digits (4, 6, 8, 9), the probability of choosing a prime digit is ½.
    We need at least two prime digits:
    One minus (the probability of having no prime digits + having one prime digit):
    There are 4 options of one prime digit, each with a probability of (1/2)4.
    There is only one option of no prime digit with a probability of (1/2)4.
    So: [1- ((1/2)4+(1/2)4*4)] = 11/16.

     

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