There are y different travelers who each have a choice of vacationing ...
The easiest way to attack this problem is to pick some real, easy numbers as values for y and n . Let's assume there are 3 travelers (A, B, C) and 2 different destinations (1, 2). We can chart out the possibilities as follows:
Thus there are 8 possibilities and in 2 of them all travelers end up at the same destination. Thus the probability is 2/8 or 1/4. By plugging in y = 3 and n = 2 into each answer choice, we see that only answer choice D yields a probability of 1/4. Alternatively, consider that each traveler can end up at any one of n destinations. Thus, for each traveler there are n possibilities. Therefore, for y travelers, there are possible outcomes. Additionally, the "winning" outcomes are those where all travelers end up at the same destination. Since there are n destinations there are n "winning" outcomes.
Thus, the probability =
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There are y different travelers who each have a choice of vacationing ...
Probability of all travelers vacationing at the same destination
To solve this problem, let's break it down step by step.
1. Total number of outcomes:
- Each traveler has a choice of n different destinations, so the total number of outcomes for one traveler is n.
- Since there are y travelers, the total number of outcomes for all y travelers is n^y.
2. Number of favorable outcomes:
- In order for all y travelers to end up vacationing at the same destination, there is only 1 favorable outcome.
- This means that all y travelers need to choose the same destination out of the n available destinations.
3. Probability calculation:
- Probability is defined as the number of favorable outcomes divided by the total number of outcomes.
- Therefore, the probability that all y travelers will end up vacationing at the same destination is 1 favorable outcome divided by n^y total outcomes.
- Mathematically, this can be represented as: P = 1/n^y
4. Simplification:
- To simplify the expression further, we can rewrite n^y as (n^n)^(y/n), since y/n is the number of groups of size n that can be formed from y travelers.
- Using the property (a^b)^c = a^(b*c), we can simplify it as n^(y/n * n) = n^y.
- Therefore, the probability can be further simplified as: P = 1/n^y
- This matches option 'D' which states that the probability is 1/ny.
- Hence, the correct answer is option 'D' - 1/ny.