SOLUTION: A family tree has three children. What is the probability that the family has 2 boys and a girl given the middle child is a boy?

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Question 1157073: A family tree has three children. What is the probability that the family has 2 boys and a girl given the middle child is a boy?
Answer by ikleyn(52788)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.

You are given this configuration for children


    X    B   Y


where X and Y stand for unknown gender and B stands for boy (which is the middle child)


Here X and Y may have 2 values X= B or G, and  Y = B or G, so there are 4 possible configurations with "B" in the center.


It is your "sample space" in this problem.


You are also given that the family has 2 boys.


It means, that only these two configurations suits for the condition


    B   B   G
or
    G   B   B.


So, there are 2 favorable configurations.


The probability under the question is the ratio "favorable/total", which in this case takes the form   = .   ANSWER

Solved.

--------------------

On conditional probability and for "sample of space", look into the lessons
    - Using sample space to solve Probability problems
    - Conditional probability problems
in this site.

Also,  you have this free of charge online textbook in ALGEBRA-II in this site
    - ALGEBRA-II - YOUR ONLINE TEXTBOOK.

The referred lesson is the part of this online textbook under the topic  "Solved problems on Probability".


Save the link to this textbook together with its description

Free of charge online textbook in ALGEBRA-II
https://www.algebra.com/algebra/homework/complex/ALGEBRA-II-YOUR-ONLINE-TEXTBOOK.lesson

into your archive and use when it is needed.


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