document.write( "Question 1193236: (a) Let X be a random variable giving the number of aces in a random draw of 4 cards from an ordinary deck 52 cards. Construct a table showing the probability distribution of X. \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #825251 by math_tutor2020(3816)![]() ![]() ![]() You can put this solution on YOUR website! \n" ); document.write( "There are four aces in a deck. One of each suit (hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades).\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "X = number of aces in a four card hand\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "The allowed values of X are drawn from the set {0,1,2,3,4}\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "If X = 0, then we have 52-4 = 48 non-ace cards to pick from. \n" ); document.write( "We have four slots to fill. Order does not matter in card hands, meaning we use the nCr combination formula. \n" ); document.write( "Plug in n = 48 and r = 4 \n" ); document.write( "n C r = (n!)/(r!(n-r)!) \n" ); document.write( "48 C 4 = (48!)/(4!*(48-4)!) \n" ); document.write( "48 C 4 = (48!)/(4!*44!) \n" ); document.write( "48 C 4 = (48*47*46*45*44!)/(4!*44!) \n" ); document.write( "48 C 4 = (48*47*46*45)/(4!) \n" ); document.write( "48 C 4 = (48*47*46*45)/(4*3*2*1) \n" ); document.write( "48 C 4 = (4669920)/(24) \n" ); document.write( "48 C 4 = 194580 \n" ); document.write( "There are 194,580 ways to select four non-ace cards\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Next, calculate the number of ways to select four cards regardless if we get an ace or not. \n" ); document.write( "n = 52 and r = 4 \n" ); document.write( "n C r = (n!)/(r!(n-r)!) \n" ); document.write( "52 C 4 = (52!)/(4!*(52-4)!) \n" ); document.write( "52 C 4 = (52!)/(4!*48!) \n" ); document.write( "52 C 4 = (52*51*50*49*48!)/(4!*48!) \n" ); document.write( "52 C 4 = (52*51*50*49)/(4!) \n" ); document.write( "52 C 4 = (52*51*50*49)/(4*3*2*1) \n" ); document.write( "52 C 4 = (6497400)/(24) \n" ); document.write( "52 C 4 = 270725 \n" ); document.write( "We have 270,725 ways to select any four cards whether we get an ace or not.\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "I should mention that the cards are NOT put back. We consider this scenario as \"no replacement\".\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Once we have the two results calculated earlier, we divide them \n" ); document.write( "194580/270725 = 0.718737\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "The probability that we get zero aces, i.e. X = 0, is roughly 0.718737\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "In the table below, we'll have P(X) = 0.718737 pair up with X = 0 in the first row. \n" ); document.write( "There's roughly a 71.8737% chance of getting no aces in a four-card hand.\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Now onto X = 1 which means we have exactly one ace in our four-card hand.\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "We have four aces, so there are four ways to select exactly one of them. \n" ); document.write( "You can use the nCr formula to note that 4C1 = 4, though this may be a bit overkill.\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "For the remaining r = 4-1 = 3 slots, we have n = 52-4 = 48 cards to pick from \n" ); document.write( "n C r = (n!)/(r!(n-r)!) \n" ); document.write( "48 C 3 = (48!)/(3!*(48-3)!) \n" ); document.write( "48 C 3 = (48!)/(3!*45!) \n" ); document.write( "48 C 3 = (48*47*46*45!)/(3!*45!) \n" ); document.write( "48 C 3 = (48*47*46)/(3!) \n" ); document.write( "48 C 3 = (48*47*46)/(3*2*1) \n" ); document.write( "48 C 3 = (103776)/(6) \n" ); document.write( "48 C 3 = 17296 \n" ); document.write( "which is the number of ways to pick the other 3 non-ace cards.\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "We found there are 4 ways to pick the single ace, and 17296 ways to pick the other three cards. \n" ); document.write( "This then means there are 4*17296 = 69184 ways to get a four-card hand such that we have exactly one ace.\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Divide this over the 270725 figure found in the previous section (it represents the number of four-card hands total) \n" ); document.write( "69184/270725 = 0.255551 \n" ); document.write( "This is the approximate P(X) value for X = 1 \n" ); document.write( "Refer to the second row of the table below.\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Next up is X = 2 \n" ); document.write( "We have 4C2 = 6 ways to select the two aces and 48C2 = 1128 ways to pick the other two non-ace cards. \n" ); document.write( "I'm skipping steps, but you'd use the nCr formula as described in the other sections above (with different n and r values of course).\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "So we have (4C2)*(48C2) = (6)*(1128) = 6768 ways to select exactly two aces and two non-aces. \n" ); document.write( "This leads to 6768/270725 = 0.025000 as the approximate P(X) value when X = 2 \n" ); document.write( "The more accurate P(X) value is P(X) = 0.02499953827684 but I'm rounding results to six decimal places. \n" ); document.write( "Feel free to use different decimal precision. Of course, if your teacher instructs otherwise, then use that precision.\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "For X = 3, we have 4C3 = 4 ways to pick the three aces. \n" ); document.write( "This is the same as having 4 ways to not pick a particular ace. \n" ); document.write( "Then we have 48C1 = 48 ways to pick the non-ace.\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "There are (4C3)*(48C1) = (4)*(48) = 192 ways to pick exactly three aces and some other card. \n" ); document.write( "192/270725 = 0.000709 approximately \n" ); document.write( "Therefore, if X = 3 then P(X) = 0.000709 roughly\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Lastly, we need to find P(X) when X = 4 \n" ); document.write( "There's only one way to pick four aces. You could use the fact that 4C4 = 1.\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "This is out of 270725 ways to select a four-card hand \n" ); document.write( "1/270725 = 0.000004 approximately \n" ); document.write( "The more accurate value is 0.0000036937852 but I'm rounding to 6 decimal places like mentioned earlier.\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "You probably were able to spot the pattern how to calculate any general P(X) value fairly quickly.\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "That pattern would be: \n" ); document.write( "P(X) = ( (4 C w)*(48 C v) )/(52 C 4) \n" ); document.write( "where w+v = 4 and w,v are integers from the set {0,1,2,3,4} \n" ); document.write( "w = number of aces, v = number of non-aces\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "For example, we could have w = 0 and v = 4 \n" ); document.write( "P(X) = ( (4 C w)*(48 C v) )/(52 C 4) \n" ); document.write( "P(X) = ( (4 C 0)*(48 C 4) )/(52 C 4) \n" ); document.write( "P(X) = ( (1)*(194,580) )/(270,725) \n" ); document.write( "P(X) = 0.71873672545941 \n" ); document.write( "P(X) = 0.718737 \n" ); document.write( "which matches up with the P(X) value we found when X = 0\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Answer:
\n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "The P(X) values should add up to 1, or very close to it. \n" ); document.write( "In this case, \n" ); document.write( "0.718737+0.255551+0.025000+0.000709+0.000004 = 1.000001 \n" ); document.write( "which unfortunately is due to rounding error; however, we're close enough. \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " |