[Math] hitting a dart board probability

probabilitypuzzlerecreational-mathematics

You have a dart board which is split in half. If you hit the left half, you get $2$ points, if you hit the right half, you get $3$ points.

You have an 80% chance of hitting the dart board on any given throw and a 70% chance of hitting the side you're aiming for given that you hit the dartboard.

If you have an unlimited number of throws, what's the probability you get a score of exactly 7?

Best Answer

Only positive scores are relevant. So it is enough to look at them. Under condition that the score is positive by aiming on certain positive score ($2$ or $3$) there is probability of $\frac{56}{80}=\frac{7}{10}$ that this score is reached and a probability of $\frac{24}{80}=\frac{3}{10}$ that the other positive score is reached.

Let $p_{n}$ denote the probability that score $n$ is reached by applying a strategy that is optimal in the sense that it leads to a maximal probability to achieve score $n$.

Then $p_{1}=0$, $p_{2}=p_{3}=p_{5}=\frac{7}{10}$ and $p_{4}=p_{6}=\frac{7}{10}\frac{7}{10}=\frac{49}{100}$.

Choosing a strategy (at the start) to come to a score of $7$ we have the following options:

Aiming at $2$: there is a probability of $\frac{7}{10}p_{5}+\frac{3}{10}p_{4}=\frac{7}{10}\frac{7}{10}+\frac{3}{10}\frac{49}{100}=0.637$.

Aiming at $3$: we have an optimal probability of $\frac{7}{10}p_{4}+\frac{3}{10}p_{5}=\frac{7}{10}\frac{49}{100}+\frac{3}{10}\frac{7}{10}=0.553$.

Any 'other' strategy will give a probability $p\times0.637+\left(1-p\right)\times0.553\in\left[0.553,0.637\right]$ for some $p\in\left[0,1\right]$

So at the start we choose for aiming at $2$ and $p_{7}=0.637$ is the probability that score $7$ will be reached.