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Siblings

by abhirup1711 » Mon Jul 01, 2013 6:00 am
In a room filled with 7 people, 4 people have exactly 1 sibling in the room and 3 people have exactly 2 siblings in the room. If two individuals are selected from the room at random, what is the probability that those two individuals are NOT siblings?
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by GMATGuruNY » Mon Jul 01, 2013 8:30 am
In a room filled with 7 people, 4 people have exactly 1 sibling in the room and 3 people have exactly 2 siblings in the room. If two individuals are selected from the room at random, what is the probability that those two individuals are NOT siblings?
5/21
3/7
4/7
5/7
16/21
Let's say that the 7 people are ABCDEFG.

4 people have exactly 1 sibling:
Let's say that A and B are siblings and that C and D are siblings.
This means:
A has 1 sibling (B).
B has 1 sibling (A).
C has 1 sibling (D).
D has 1 sibling (C).

3 people have exactly 2 siblings:
Let's say that E, F and G are all siblings of each other.
This means:
E has 2 siblings (F and G).
F has 2 siblings (E and G).
G has 2 siblings (E and F).

Total number of sibling pairs = 5: AB, CD, EF, EG, FG.
Total number of pairs that can be formed from 7 people: 7C2 = 21.
P(sibling pair) = 5/21
P(not sibling pair) = 1 - 5/21 = 16/21.

The correct answer is E.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Mon Jul 01, 2013 3:53 pm
abhirup1711 wrote:In a room filled with 7 people, 4 people have exactly 1 sibling in the room and 3 people have exactly 2 siblings in the room. If two individuals are selected from the room at random, what is the probability that those two individuals are NOT siblings?
First we need to recognize that the given information tells us that the 7 people consist of:
- a sibling trio
- a sibling pair
- and another sibling pair

Using counting techniques:

For this question, it's easier to find the complement.
So P(not siblings) = 1 - P(they are siblings)

P(they are siblings) = [# of ways to select 2 siblings] / [total # of ways to select 2 people]

# of ways to select 2 siblings
Case a) 2 siblings from the sibling trio: from these 3 siblings, we can select 2 siblings in 3C2 ways (3 ways)
Case b) 2 siblings from first sibling pair: we can select 2 siblings in 2C2 ways (1 way)
Case c) 2 siblings from second sibling pair: we can select 2 siblings in 2C2 ways (1 way)

So, total number of ways to select 2 siblings = 3+1+1 = 5

total # of ways to select 2 people
We have 7 people and we want to select 2 of them
We can accomplish this in 7C2 ways (21 ways)

So, P(they are siblings) = 5/21

This means P(not siblings) = 1 - 5/21
= [spoiler]16/21[/spoiler]

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