Question

A common way for two people to settle a frivolous dispute is to play a game of rock-paper-scissors. In this game, each person simultaneously displays a hand signal to indicate a rock, a piece of paper, or a pair of scissors. Rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, and paper beats rock. If both players select the same hand signal, the game results in a tie.

Two roommates, roommate A and roommate B, are about to go cruising with a mutual friend and are arguing over who gets to sit in the front seat. Roommate A suggests a game of to settle the dispute.

Consider the game of rock-paper-scissors to be a chance experiment. How many outcomes are in sample space of this chance experiment?

a. 6
b. 2
c. 9
d. 7

Answer 1

c. 9

Explanation:

An outcome is usually known to be the result of any experiment. If we cannot predict beforehand, the outcome of an experiment, the experiment is called a random experiment.

The set of all possible outcomes of any random experiment will be the Sample space and it is denoted by S. Therefore, the number of Sample space is the of outcomes in S or the number of elements in the Sample space.

From the given information:

the game of rock-paper-scissors has three components and there are three people involved in the game.

Therefore, the number of possible sample space S = 3 × 3 = 9