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In a bag of 25 M&Ms, each piece is equally likely to be red, green, orange, blue, or brown, independent of the color of any other piece. Find the PMF of R, the number of red pieces. What is the probability a bag has no red M&Ms?

User Juliet
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Final answer:

The PMF of the number of red M&Ms in a bag can be modeled using a binomial distribution with n=25 and p=1/5. To calculate the probability of no red M&Ms, we use the formula (⁴/₅)^25, as it is a case of P(R=0) in the binomial distribution.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question asks to find the probability mass function (PMF) of the number of red M&Ms (R) in a bag of 25, where each M&M has an equal chance of being red, green, orange, blue, or brown.

The total number of outcomes is 5 (one for each color), and since each piece is equally likely to be of any color, the probability of any M&M being red is ⅕ (1 in 5). The PMF of R can be modeled using the binomial distribution with parameters n=25 (the number of trials or M&Ms in the bag) and p=⅕ (the probability of success, which in this case is drawing a red M&M).

To find the probability of a bag having no red M&Ms, we look at the case where R=0. The formula for the binomial probability is P(R=k) = (n choose k) × p^k × (1-p)^(n-k), where 'k' is the number of successes.

Plugging the values into the formula, we get: P(R=0) = (25 choose 0) × (⅕)^0 × (⁴/₅)^25 = 1 × 1 × (⁴/₅)^25.

The probability that a bag has no red M&Ms can be calculated using this formula. We're trying to calculate P(R=0), which is simply (⁴/₅)^25.

User Wez Furlong
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