[Math] The probability of the sum of the numbers in the three tickets drawn to be 36

combinatoricsprobability

A bag contains 36 tickets,numbered from 0 to 35.Three of the tickets are drawn at random.Find the probability of the sum of the numbers in the three tickets drawn to be 36.

I chose the three numbers as $x_1,x_2,x_3$ such that $x_1+x_2+x_3=36$,$x_1\geq 0,x_2\geq 0,x_3\geq 0$.I found probability as $\frac{\binom{36-1}{3-1}}{\binom{36}{3}}=\frac{1}{12}$
but the book says answer is $\frac{9}{595}$I know my denominator $\binom{36}{3}$ is correct.So numerator must be $108$ for correct answer.
How can i get that?What is the correct method.Please tell me.Thanks.

Best Answer

There are three mistakes in your calculation. In the numerator, you're taking the order of the three tickets into account, and in the denominator you aren't. The upper index of the binomial coefficient in the numerator, if you do take order into account, should be $36+3-1$, not $36-1$. And you're counting sums where the same ticket is used twice.

To get it right, you could calculate the number of ordered triples that sum to $36$, allowing equal parts, which is $\binom{36+3-1}{3-1}-3=700$ (subtracting $3$ because there's no ticket numbered $36$), then subtract the number of these with three equal numbers, which is $1$, and the number with exactly two equal numbers, which is $3\cdot17=51$ (the triples of the form $(x,x,36-2x)$ with $x=1\ldots18$ except $x=12$, with $3$ different orders each), and then divide by $6$ for the $6$ different orders to get

$$ \frac{700-1-51}6=108\;. $$

Now you can divide this by the number of ways to select 3 tickets to get the required probability.

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