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| Question 909323:  a room has 3 lamps from the collection of 10 light bulbs of which 6 are not good, a person selects 3 at random and puts them into sockets. what is the probability that, he will have light from all the three lamps.
 Answer by Theo(13342)
      (Show Source): 
You can put this solution on YOUR website! on your first draw, the probability of getting a good bulb is 4/10. on your second draw, the probability of getting a good bulb is 3/9.
 on your third draw, the probability of getting a good bulb is 2/8.
 
 the probability that you will get a good bulb on all 3 draws is therefore equal to 4/10 * 3/9 * 2/8 which is equal to 24/720 which can be simplified to 1/30 which has a decimal equivalent of .033 rounded to 3 decimal places.
 
 you can also look at it as the number of possible ways you can get a good bulb divided by the total possible ways you can get a bulb.
 
 the equation for that is c(4,3) / c(10,3) which is equal to 4 / 120 which is equal to 1/30 again.
 
 note that c(4,3) and 4c3 mean the same thing.
 i mention this now because i used the ncx terminology down below when i used the c(n,x) terminology here.
 
 c(n,x) is the combination formula of n! / (x! * (n-x)!)
 
 ncx is also the combination formula of n! / (x! * (n-x)!)
 
 when n = 10 and x = 3, this formula becomes 10! / (3! * 7!) which becomes 10*9*8*7! divided by 3! * 7! which becomes 10*9*8 / 3! which becomes 10*9*8 divided by 3*2*1 which becomes 10*3*4 which becomes 120.
 
 similar machinations for when n = 4 and x = 3 results in 4.
 
 you have 2 formula that both point to the same conclusion.
 
 this indicates a fair chance that the solution is good unless you completely misunderstood what the problem is asking you to do.
 
 this can be confirmed with a simple example that the formula is good.
 
 assume 4 bulbs of which 3 are good and 1 is bad.
 
 you want to draw 2 bulbs.
 
 what is the probability that both bulbs will be good.
 
 the formula says that the probability will be 3/4 * 2/3 = 6/12 = 1/2.
 
 the combination formula says that the probability will be (3c2) / (4c2) which is equal to 3/6 which is equal to 1/2.
 
 since the numbers are small, we can see what the possible combinations are:
 
 you have bulbs labeled a, b, c, and d.
 
 a and b and c are good and d is bad.
 
 the total possible of combinations of 2 bulbs from the set of 4 are:
 
 ab
 ac
 ad
 bc
 bd
 cd
 
 of these possible combinations, ad and bd and cd contain bad bulb d.
 
 that means that you have 3 good sets of 2 and 3 bad sets of 2.
 
 that's a probability of 1/2 that you will get 2 good bulbs from this set of 4.
 
 the logic appears sound and should be able to be applied to the larger problem which is what i did.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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