Question
Four fair six-sided dice are rolled. The probability that the sum of the results being $22$ is $$\frac{X}{1296}.$$ What is the value of $X$?
My Approach
I simplified it to the equation of the form:
$x_{1}+x_{2}+x_{3}+x_{4}=22, 1\,\,\leq x_{i} \,\,\leq 6,\,\,1\,\,\leq i \,\,\leq 4 $
Solving this equation results in:
$x_{1}+x_{2}+x_{3}+x_{4}=22$
I removed restriction of $x_{i} \geq 1$ first as follows-:
$\Rightarrow x_{1}^{'}+1+x_{2}^{'}+1+x_{3}^{'}+1+x_{4}^{'}+1=22$
$\Rightarrow x_{1}^{'}+x_{2}^{'}+x_{3}^{'}+x_{4}^{'}=18$
$\Rightarrow \binom{18+4-1}{18}=1330$
Now i removed restriction for $x_{i} \leq 6$ , by calculating the number of bad cases and then subtracting it from $1330$:
calculating bad combination i.e $x_{i} \geq 7$
$\Rightarrow x_{1}^{'}+x_{2}^{'}+x_{3}^{'}+x_{4}^{'}=18$
We can distribute $7$ to $2$ of $x_{1}^{'},x_{2}^{'},x_{3}^{'},x_{4}^{'}$ i.e$\binom{4}{2}$
We can distribute $7$ to $1$ of $x_{1}^{'},x_{2}^{'},x_{3}^{'},x_{4}^{'}$ i.e$\binom{4}{1}$ and then among all others .
i.e
$$\binom{4}{1} \binom{14}{11}$$
Therefore, the number of bad combinations equals $$\binom{4}{1} \binom{14}{11} – \binom{4}{2}$$
Therefore, the solution should be:
$$1330-\left( \binom{4}{1} \binom{14}{11} – \binom{4}{2}\right)$$
However, I am getting a negative value. What am I doing wrong?
EDIT
I am asking for my approach, because if the question is for a larger number of dice and if the sum is higher, then predicting the value of dice will not work.
Best Answer
There aren't too many to just count.
Permutations of $6+6+6+4$: $\binom41=4$
Permutations of $6+6+5+5$: $\binom42=6$
These are the only options, so your numerator must be $4+6=10$