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a
Mr. and Mrs. Doran have a genetic history such that the probability that a child be
born to them with a certain trait is 5/9. If they have five children, what is the
probability that exactly two of their five children will have that trait? Round your
answer to the nearest thousandth.

User Takermania
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2 Answers

21 votes
21 votes

Explanation:

the basic probabilty of being born with that certain trait is 5/9.

that means the probabilty of being born without that certain trait is 1 - 5/9 = 4/9.

the probability of 2 children being born with that trait and 3 being born without that trait is

5/9 × 5/9 × 4/9 × 4/9 × 4/9

but as you can see, this only covers a specific case, e.g. when the first 2 children have the trait, and the younger siblings don't.

for the general probability of that questioned result we need to multiply this with the number of different combinations : in how many ways can I pick 2 children out of 5, when the sequence of the 2 picked children is irrelevant ?

this is C (5, 2) = 5!/((5-2)!×2) = 5!/(3!×2) = 5×4/2 = 5×2 = 10

so, the probability is

10×(5/9)²×(4/9)³ = 10×5²×4³/9⁵ = 0.270961405...

≈ 0.271

User Trauer
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18 votes
18 votes

At he love that have been happy

User RobWhistler
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