Instructor: Conrad Perez

Student: Jennifer Tofan

Course: Math 21 Online (52031) - Spring Assignment: 8.5
Date: 05/09/23
2023

For the experiment described​below, let x determine a random​variable, and use your knowledge of probability to prepare a probability
distribution.

Three balls are drawn​(without replacement) from a bag that contains 7 yellow balls and 8 red balls. The number of red balls is counted.

A probability distribution represents the probabilities of all possible values of a random variable. In this​case, the random variable x is the
number of red balls obtained from drawing three balls from the bag without replacement. The steps below describe how to make a table of a
probability distribution.

• List all possible outcomes. Use a table or figure if it is helpful.

• Identify outcomes that represent the same value of the random variable. Find the probability of each value of the random variable.
• Make a table in which one column lists each value of the variable and another column lists each probability. The sum of all the probabilities
must be 1.

From drawing three balls from the​bag, there can be​0,1,2 or 3 red balls among the three balls. This means there are 4 possible outcomes for
the random variable.

The next step is to find the probability of each possible outcome. To find the probability of an event​A, assuming equally likely​outcomes, the
formula below can be applied.

number of ways event A can occur
P(A) =
total number of possible outcomes

First, find the total number of possible outcomes. Recall that C(n,r) is the number of combinations of n elements taken r at a time​(where
r ≤ n​), which can be calculated using the following formula.

n!
C(n,r) =
(n − r)!r!

Since there are 7 yellow balls and 8 red ​balls, the total number of balls in the bag is 15. Since three balls are drawn from the​bag, the total
number of possible outcomes can be found using the combination​formula, which is

15!
C(15,3) = = 455 possible outcomes.
(15 − 3)!3!

Next, find the number of ways that a certain number of red balls can be drawn. Starting with the case there are no red balls among three balls
drawn from the​bag, which implies that the three balls drawn are yellow. There are 7 yellow balls and 8 red ​balls, so the number of ways no
red balls are drawn is equal to

7! 8!
C(7,3) • C(8,0) = • = 35 • 1 = 35 ways.
(7 − 3)!3! (8 − 0)!0!

Thus, the probability that there are no red balls among three balls drawn from the bag can be found using the formula below.

C(7,3) • C(8,0) 35 1
P(0) = = =
C(15,3) 455 13

The next case is that there is one red ball among three balls drawn from the​bag, implying the other two balls are yellow. Since there are 7
yellow balls and 8 red ​balls, the number of ways one red ball is among the three balls drawn is equal to

7! 8!
C(7,2) • C(8,1) = • = 21 • 8 = 168 ways.
(7 − 2)!2! (8 − 1)!1!

Therefore, the probability that there is one red ball among three balls drawn from the bag can be found using the formula below.

C(7,2) • C(8,1) 168 24

P(1) = = =
C(15,3) 455 65

Fill in the probabilities​P(0) and​P(1) into the​table, which is shown below. Continue the same process to find the probabilities​P(2) and​P(3).
 x 0 1 2 3

1 24
P(x)             
13 65

28 8
Following the same process, ​P(2) = and ​P(3) = . As a​result, the probability distribution for the given experiment is given in the table
65 65
65
below. Notice that the probabilities add up to = 1.
65

x 0 1 2 3

1 24 28 8
P(x)
13 65 65 65