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Ch. 4 - Probability
Triola - Elementary Statistics 14th Edition
Triola14th EditionElementary StatisticsISBN: 9780137366446Not the one you use?Change textbook
Chapter 4, Problem 4.4.23a

Corporate Officers and Committees The Self Driving Unicycle Company was recently successfully funded via Kickstarter and must now appoint a president, chief executive officer (CEO), chief operating officer (COO), and chief financial officer (CFO), and chief human resources officer (CHR). It must also appoint a strategic planning committee with five different members. There are 15 qualified candidates, and officers can also serve on the committee.


a. How many different ways can the five officers be appointed?

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Step 1: Recognize that the problem involves arranging 5 officers (president, CEO, COO, CFO, and CHR) from a pool of 15 candidates. Since the roles are distinct, the order in which the officers are chosen matters. This is a permutation problem.
Step 2: Use the formula for permutations, which is given by: P(n, r) = \(\frac{n!}{(n - r)!}\), where 'n' is the total number of candidates (15) and 'r' is the number of positions to fill (5).
Step 3: Substitute the values into the formula: P(15, 5) = \(\frac{15!}{(15 - 5)!}\) = \(\frac{15!}{10!}\). This simplifies the calculation by canceling out the factorial terms from 10! downward.
Step 4: Expand the numerator (15!) up to the first 5 terms, as the rest will cancel with the denominator (10!): 15 \(\times\) 14 \(\times\) 13 \(\times\) 12 \(\times\) 11. This gives the total number of ways to arrange the 5 officers.
Step 5: Conclude that the result of this calculation represents the total number of distinct ways to appoint the 5 officers from the 15 candidates.

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Key Concepts

Here are the essential concepts you must grasp in order to answer the question correctly.

Permutations

Permutations refer to the different arrangements of a set of items where the order matters. In this context, the appointment of corporate officers is a permutation problem because each position (president, CEO, COO, CFO, CHR) is distinct and the order of selection affects the outcome. The formula for permutations is n! / (n - r)!, where n is the total number of candidates and r is the number of positions to fill.
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Combinations

Combinations are selections of items where the order does not matter. In the context of forming a strategic planning committee from the pool of candidates, combinations are used because the arrangement of committee members is irrelevant. The formula for combinations is n! / [r!(n - r)!], where n is the total number of candidates and r is the number of members to choose.
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Combinations

Factorial

A factorial, denoted as n!, is the product of all positive integers up to n. Factorials are essential in calculating permutations and combinations, as they provide the total number of ways to arrange or select items. For example, 5! equals 120, representing the number of ways to arrange five distinct officers. Understanding factorials is crucial for solving problems involving arrangements and selections.
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Related Practice
Textbook Question

Redundancy in Computer Hard Drives It is generally recognized that it is wise to backup computer data. Assume that the following refer to use of Western Digital model WD60EFRX hard drives, which have an annual failure rate of 3.66% (based on data from Backblaze, Inc.).

a. If you store all of your computer data on a single hard drive, what is the probability that the drive will fail during a year?

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Textbook Question

Phase I of a Clinical Trial A clinical test on humans of a new drug is normally done in three phases. Phase I is conducted with a relatively small number of healthy volunteers. For example, a phase I test of bexarotene involved only 14 subjects. Assume that we want to treat 14 healthy humans with this new drug and we have 16 suitable volunteers available.


a. If the subjects are selected and treated one at a time in sequence, how many different sequential arrangements are possible if 14 people are selected from the 16 that are available?


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Textbook Question

Denomination Effect

In Exercises 13–16, use the data in the following table. In an experiment to study the effects of using four quarters versus a \$1 bill, some college students were given four quarters and others were given a \$1 bill, and they could either keep the money or spend it on gum. The results are summarized in the table (based on data from “The Denomination Effect,” by Priya Raghubir and Joydeep Srivastava, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 36).



Denomination Effect


a. Find the probability of randomly selecting a student who spent the money, given that the student was given four quarters.


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Textbook Question

Surge Protectors Refer to the accompanying figure showing surge protectors p and q used to protect an expensive television. If there is a surge in the voltage, the surge protector reduces it to a safe level. Assume that each surge protector has a 0.985 probability of working correctly when a voltage surge occurs.


a. If the two surge protectors are arranged in series, what is the probability that a voltage surge will not damage the television? (Do not round the answer.)

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Textbook Question

Design Your Own Lottery You have been given the task of creating a new lottery. For each \$1 ticket, the player will select 6 different numbers from 1 to 25 (without replacement), and the only prize will be the jackpot won by players who select the six numbers (in any order) that are later drawn.


a. What is the probability of winning with one ticket?

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Textbook Question

In Exercises 21-28, find the probability and answer the questions.


X-Linked Genetic Disease Men have XY (or YX) chromosomes and women have XX chromosomes. X-linked recessive genetic diseases (such as juvenile retinoschisis) occur when there is a defective X chromosome that occurs without a paired X chromosome that is not defective. In the following, represent a defective X chromosome with lowercase x, so a child with the xY or Yx pair of chromosomes will have the disease and a child with XX or XY or YX or xX or Xx will not have the disease. Each parent contributes one of the chromosomes to the child.


a. If a father has the defective x chromosome and the mother has good XX chromosomes, what is the probability that a son will inherit the disease?

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