A person throws successively with a pair of dice. The chance that he t...
Solution:
The possible outcomes of the throw of a pair of dice are given below:
{1,1}, {1,2}, {1,3}, {1,4}, {1,5}, {1,6}, {2,1}, {2,2}, {2,3}, {2,4}, {2,5}, {2,6}, {3,1}, {3,2}, {3,3}, {3,4}, {3,5}, {3,6}, {4,1}, {4,2}, {4,3}, {4,4}, {4,5}, {4,6}, {5,1}, {5,2}, {5,3}, {5,4}, {5,5}, {5,6}, {6,1}, {6,2}, {6,3}, {6,4}, {6,5}, {6,6}
There are 6 ways to throw a 7 and 4 ways to throw a 9. Therefore, the probability of throwing a 7 before a 9 is 6/10 or 3/5.
To throw a 9 before a 7, the person must throw a 9 on the first roll, which has a probability of 4/36 or 1/9. If he does not throw a 9 on the first roll, he must throw non-7 numbers until he throws a 9 or a 7. The probability of throwing a non-7 number on any roll is 30/36 or 5/6. Therefore, the probability of throwing a 9 before a 7 is:
P(9 before 7) = P(throw 9 on first roll) + P(throw non-7 number on first roll) × P(throw 9 before 7 on subsequent rolls)
P(9 before 7) = 1/9 + 5/6 × P(9 before 7)
Solving for P(9 before 7), we get:
P(9 before 7) = 2/5
Therefore, the chance that he throws 9 before he throws 7 is 2/5.