silly doubt!

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silly doubt!

by mehaksal » Wed Aug 29, 2012 8:53 am
John wrote a phone number on a note that was later lost. John can remember that the number had 7 digits, the digit 1 appeared in the last three places and 0 did not appear at all. What is the probability that the phone number contains at least two prime digits?

a) 15/16
b) 11/16
c) 11/12
d) 1/2
e) 5/8
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by adthedaddy » Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:04 am
Hi, check following post. Stuart has explained it nicely.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/probability-t17876.html
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary" - Steve Jobs

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by adthedaddy » Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:20 am
However, I've my own approach to solve this problem.

I would go this way -

Let the reqd phone no be _ _ _ _ 111

Although not clearly mentioned in the question, I would ignore the possibility of '1' for the remaining 4 places as John remembers that it appeared in the last 3 places.

Numbers we can include = 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
Prime nos: 2,3,5,7
Non-prime: 4,6,8,9

Thus, the probability that the selected no is prime or non-prime is 4/8 = 1/2

The question asks us that the reqd no should have atleast 2 prime digits i.e. it can be 2,3 or 4
i.e. it cannot be 0 or 1

We take the approach: Total Probability - opposite probability = Reqd Probability

Case-1: There are Zero primes => Probability = (1/2)*(1/2)*(1/2)*(1/2) = (1/2)^4 = 1/16
Case-2: There is one prime => Probability = {4C1*(1/2)}*(1/2)*(1/2)*(1/2) = 4/16
Adding the above cases, we get 1/16 + 4/16 = 5/16

Thus, probability that the phone no contains atleast 2 primes = 1 - 5/16 = 11/16

Thus, ans = (B)
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary" - Steve Jobs