[Math] Suppose there are 5 bills in a box…find the PMF

probability

Suppose that there are $5$ bills in a box: three $1$ dollar bills, one $5$ dollar bill and one $10$ dollar bill. You are allowed to pick up two bills at the same time from the box randomly. Let X denote the money you get from this game.

$1.$ What's the pmf of $X$?

We have to find the probability of each event happening:

$P(1 \text{dollar} + 1 \text{dollar} (2 \text{dollars})) = 3/10$

$P(1 \text{dollar} + 5 \text{dollars} (6 \text{dollars})) = 3/10$

$P(1 \text{dollar} + 10 \text{dollars} (11 \text{dollars})) = 3/10$

$P(5 \text{dollars} + 10 \text{dollars} (15 \text{dollars})) = 1/10$

How do we find calculate the probabilities of each event? I don't understand how $3/10$ or $1/10$ was calculated.

Best Answer

For $P(2)$ you have $3$ "one dollar bills" so $\frac 3 5 \frac 2 4$

For $P(6)$ you have $3$ "one dollar bills" and one "five dollar" bill so $\frac 3 5 \frac 1 4$ but you should mulitply by two because you can first take the "one dollar" bill and after the "five dollar" bill OR first to take the "five dollar" bill and after to take the "one dollar" bill so $2\times\frac 3 5 \frac 1 4$

And do the same for $P(11)$ and $P(15)$

$$ \begin{array}{c|lcr} X & 2 & 6 &11&15 \\ \hline P_x&\frac 3 5\frac 2 4&2\times\frac 3 5\frac 1 4&2\times\frac 3 5\frac 1 4&2\times\frac 1 5\frac 1 4 \end{array} $$

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