第三届哈佛-麻省理工学院十一月锦标赛一般测试答案.pdfVIP

3rdAnnualHarvard-MITNovemberTournament

Sunday7November2010

GeneralTest

1.[2]Jacobflipsfivecoins,exactlythreeofwhichlandheads.Whatistheprobabilitythatthefirsttwo

arebothheads?

Answer:3WecanassociatewitheachsequenceofcoinflipsauniquewordwhereHrepresents

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heads,andTrepresentstails.Forexample,thewordHHTTHwouldcorrespondtothecoinflip

sequencewherethefirsttwoflipswereheads,thenexttwoweretails,andthelastwasheads.Weare

giventhatexactlythreeofthefivecoinflipscameupheads,soourwordmustbesomerearrangement

ofHHHTT.Tocalculatethetotalnumberofpossibilities,anyrearrangementcorrespondstoachoice

ofthreespotstocetheHflips,sothereare5=10possibilities.Ifthefirsttwoflipsareboth

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heads,thenwecanonlyrearrangethelastthreeHTTflips,whichcorrespondstochoosingonespot

fortheremainingH.Thiscanbedonein3=3ways.Finally,theprobabilityistheientof

1

thesetwo,sowegettheanswerof3.Alternatively,sincethetotalnumberofpossiblitiesissmall,we

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canwriteoutallrearrangements:HHHTT,HHTHT,HHTTH,HTHHT,HTHTH,HTTHH,THHHT,

THHTH,THTHH,TTHHH.Oftheseten,onlyinthefirstthreedoweflipheadsthefirsttwotimes,

sowegetthesameanswerof3.

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2.[3]Howmanysequencesa,a,...,aofzeroesandones