SOLUTION: Events A and B are dependent and disjointed. It is known that one of the events A and B must occur. The probabilities of events A and B are p and p^2. Find p.

Question 1198789: Events A and B are dependent and disjointed. It is known that one of the events A and B must occur. The probabilities of events A and B are p and p^2. Find p.
Answer by ikleyn(52803) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.


From the problem,  p^2 + p = 1,  or

    p^2 + p - 1 = 0.


Then the quadratic formula gives


     =  = .


It provides one positive and one negative root.

We choose the positive value  

    p =  = 0.618  (rounded).    ANSWER

Solved.

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