Pay no attention to her gripes.
For two events A and B, P(A) = 0.3 and P(B)=0.2. (a) If A and B are independent, then
P(A|B) = P(A∩B) =
P(A∪B) =
Venn diagrams make things easier to understand than formulas alone.
Draw a Venn diagram with sets A and B, with r,s,t,u representing the
probabilities of the four regions:
P(A) = 0.3 = r+s
P(B) = 0.2 = s+t
Since they are independent,
P(A∩B) = s = P(A)P(B) = (0.3)(0.2) = 0.06 <--ANSWER to P(A∩B)
So since
s = 0.06 and
r+s = 0.3, substitution gives
r+0.06 = 0.3
r = 0.3-0.06
r = 0.24
And since
s = 0.06 and
s+t = 0.2
0.06+t = 0.2
t = 0.14
P(A∪B) = r+s+t = 0.24+0.06+0.14 = 0.44 <--ANSWER to P(A∪B)
Note: We weren't asked for P(A'∩B') = u, but we could have
found it because r+s+t+u = 1, so
0.24+0.06+0.14+u = 1
0.44+u = 1
u = 0.56
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(b) If A and B are dependent and P(A|B) = 0.25,
then P(B|A) =
P(A∩B) =
P(A|B) = P(A∩B)/P(B) = s/0.2 = 0.25
s = 0.25(0.2)
s = 0.05
P(B|A) = P(B∩A)/P(A) = P(A∩B)/P(A) = s/0.2 = 0.05/0.3 = 5/30 = 1/6
(We could have just divided 0.05 by 0.3 and gotten 0.1666666...,
but repeating decimals are a hassle, so I multiplied top and bottom
by 100 and got the fraction 5/30 which reduced to 1/6.
We aren't asked to, but we could finish out the Venn diagram for (b) if we
like:
Edwin