Kathryn has a crush on Joe. Dressed as Catwoman, she attends the same school Halloween party as Joe, hoping he will be there. If Joe gets beat up, Kathryn will be able to help Joe, and will be able to tell him how much she likes him. Otherwise, Kathryn will need to get her hipster friend, Max, who is DJing the event, to play Joe’s favorite song, “Pieces of Me” by Ashlee Simpson, to get him out on the dance floor, where she’ll also be able to tell him how much she likes him. Since playing the song would be in flagrant violation of Max’s musical integrity as a DJ, Kathryn will have to bribe him to play the song. For every she gives Max, the probability of him playing the song goes up (from to for the first , from to for the next , all the way up to if she gives him ). Max only accepts money in increments of . How much money should Kathryn give to Max to give herself at least a chance of securing enough time to tell Joe how much she likes him?
Solution
1. Determine the probability of Joe getting beat up:
Joe has a probability of getting beat up if he dresses as JC Chasez or Justin Timberlake. The probabilities are:
- JC Chasez:
- Justin Timberlake:
Since there are 5 members of NSYNC and Joe is equally likely to dress as any of them, the probability of Joe dressing as JC Chasez or Justin Timberlake is:
The combined probability of Joe getting beat up is:
2. Set up the equation for Kathryn's probability:
Kathryn needs at least a chance to tell Joe how much she likes him. If Joe does not get beat up, Kathryn needs to bribe Max to play Joe's favorite song. The probability of Joe not getting beat up is:
Let be the amount of money (in dollars) Kathryn gives to Max. The probability of Max playing the song is:
The combined probability of Kathryn getting a chance to tell Joe is:
3. Solve the inequality:
Subtract 0.17 from both sides:
Divide both sides by 0.083:
Since Max only accepts money in increments of $10, we round up to the nearest multiple of 10:
The final answer is