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.

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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) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
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From the problem,  p^2 + p = 1,  or

    p^2 + p - 1 = 0.


Then the quadratic formula gives


    p%5B1%2C2%5D = %28-1+%2B-+sqrt+%281%5E2+%2B+4%2A1%29%29%2F2 = %28-1+%2B-+sqrt%285%29%29%2F2.


It provides one positive and one negative root.

We choose the positive value  

    p = %28-1+%2B+sqrt%285%29%29%2F2 = 0.618  (rounded).    ANSWER

Solved.