Probablility qn

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Probablility qn

by sasikanth_kv » Wed Sep 23, 2009 1:04 am
1. A certain junior class has 1,000 students and a certain senior class has 800 students. Among these students, there are 60 sibling pairs, each consisting of 1 junior and 1 senior. If 1 student is to be selected at random from each class, what is the probability that the 2 students selected will be a sibling pair ?

A) 3/40,000
B) 1/3,600
C) 9/2,000
D) 1/60
E) 1/15

Can any body solve this question ?
OA --- about to come.
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Re: Probablility qn

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Wed Sep 23, 2009 7:08 am
sasikanth_kv wrote:1. A certain junior class has 1,000 students and a certain senior class has 800 students. Among these students, there are 60 sibling pairs, each consisting of 1 junior and 1 senior. If 1 student is to be selected at random from each class, what is the probability that the 2 students selected will be a sibling pair ?
A) 3/40,000
B) 1/3,600
C) 9/2,000
D) 1/60
E) 1/15
Can any body solve this question ?
OA --- about to come.
For two siblings to be selected, 2 things must happen: we must select a junior who has a senior sibling AND the senior selected must be the sibling of the selected junior.
We get P(junior with sibling AND selected senior is sibling to selected junior)= P(junior with sibling) x P(selected senior is sibling to selected junior)

P(junior with sibling): there are 1000 juniors and 60 of them have senior siblings. So, P(junior with sibling)=60/1000

P(selected senior is sibling to selected junior): Once the junior has been selected, there is only 1 senior (out of 800 seniors) who is the sibling to the selected junior. So, P(selected senior is sibling to selected junior)= 1/800

So, the probability is (60/1000)x(1/800) = 3/40,000
The answer is A
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