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Person A speaks the truth 58% of the time. The probability of person B speaking the truth on a given occasion that person B also speaks the truth is 43%. What is the probability that person A speaks the truth, but person B lies?

A. About 32%
B. About 50%
C. About 58%
D. About 41%

User Marcj
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1 Answer

2 votes

Final answer:

The probability that person A speaks the truth while person B lies is about 33%, which is closest to option A, about 32%.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is asking us to find the probability that person A speaks the truth while person B lies. Person A speaks the truth 58% of the time (P(A) = 0.58), and person B speaks the truth 43% of the time (P(B) = 0.43). However, we are interested in the probability that person B lies, which is the complement of person B speaking the truth, so we calculate P(B') = 1 - P(B) = 1 - 0.43 = 0.57.

The probability that A speaks the truth and B lies simultaneously is then found by multiplying these individual probabilities since they are independent events:

P(A and B') = P(A) × P(B') = 0.58 × 0.57 ≈ 0.3306, or about 33%.

The correct answer would be closest to option A, about 32%.

User Jonathan Feenstra
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