Carcass wrote:
A garden has only equal number of roses and tulips. Two flowers are selected randomly.
Quantity A |
Quantity B |
Twice the probability that both the flowers selected are roses |
Probability that one of the flowers selected is rose and the other is tulip |
Let's assign some variables...
Let
r = the number of roses in the garden
Let
t = the number of tulips in the garden
Since garden has only equal number of roses and tulips, we know that
r=tQUANTITY A: Twice the probability that both the flowers selected are rosesP(both flowers are roses) = P(1st flower is a rose
AND 2nd flower is a rose)
= P(1st flower is a rose)
x P(2nd flower is a rose)
=
rr+t x r−1r+t−1=
r(r−1)(r+t)(r+t−1)We want TWICE that probability, which means QUANTITY A =
2r(r−1)(r+t)(r+t−1)QUANTITY B: Probability that one of the flowers selected is rose and the other is tulipP(select one rose and one tulip) = P(1st flower is a rose
AND 2nd flower is a tulip
OR 1st flower is a tulip
AND 2nd flower is a rose)
= [P(1st flower is a rose)
x P(2nd flower is a tulip)]
+ [P(1st flower is a tulip)
x P(2nd flower is a rose)]
= [
rr+t xtr+t−1]
+ [
tr+t x rr+t−1]
=
rt(r+t)(r+t−1) + tr(r+t)(r+t−1) =
2rt(r+t)(r+t−1) So we have the following:
QUANTITY A:
2r(r−1)(r+t)(r+t−1)QUANTITY B:
2rt(r+t)(r+t−1) Multiply both quantities by
(r+t)(r+t−1) to get:
QUANTITY A:
2r(r−1)QUANTITY B:
2rt Divided both quantities by
2r to get:
QUANTITY A:
r−1QUANTITY B:
tSince
r=t, we can rewrite Quantity B as follows:
QUANTITY A:
r−1QUANTITY B:
rAt this point we can clearly see that
Quantity B is greaterAnswer: B