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What is the probability of someone correctly guessing your Social Security number? (Assume all digits 0-9 are available for use)a

2 Answers

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(1)/(10^9)=(1)/(1000000000)
User Zysaaa
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5 votes

Answer: 1 / 999,999,999

Step-by-step explanation:

You can do it in two different ways.

1) First approach

probability = number of positive events / number of possible events

i) number of positive events = 1 (your number is just one number)

ii) number of possible events = number of valid numbers

Assuming the smallest valid number is 1, and the greatest one is 999,999,999, that leads to 999,999,999 different numbers

iii) probability = 1 / 999,999,999

2) Second approach

i) there are 9 digits.

ii) the guesser must guess all the digits in the correct order

iii) since there are 10 digits, from 0 to 9, there are 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 = 1,000,000,000 different combinations

But that includes the number 000,000,000 which is not valid, so you have to subtract 1: 1,000,000,000 - 1 = 999,999,999

Which leads to the same result of the first approach.

User JKupzig
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7.0k points