Olympiad Maths Prep

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Problem 146

AMC 10/12, early questions
Combinatorics Difficulty 3.5 Find the answer

In an oral examination, 3 out of 10 questions are randomly selected for a student to answer. If the student answers correctly to 2 of the selected questions, they pass the test. Given that a student can answer 6 out of the 10 questions, what is the probability of them passing?

Official solution

First, let's consider all possible combinations for selecting 3 questions out of 10. The number of combinations is given by the binomial coefficient C(10,3)C(10,3). This can be computed as:

C(10,3)=10!3!(103)!=10×9×86=120 C(10,3) = \frac{10!}{3!(10-3)!} = \frac{10 \times 9 \times 8}{6} = 120

The student will pass if they answer correctly to exactly 2 questions or all 3 of the selected questions.

The number of ways to select 1 question that the student cannot answer (from the 4 that they cannot answer correctly) and 2 questions they can answer (from the 6 that they can) is given by the product C(4,1)C(6,2)C(4,1) \cdot C(6,2). This can be computed as:

C(4,1)C(6,2)=4×6×52=4×15=60 C(4,1) \cdot C(6,2) = 4 \times \frac{6 \times 5}{2} = 4 \times 15 = 60

The number of ways to select 3 questions they can answer is given by C(6,3)C(6,3). This can be computed as:

C(6,3)=6!3!(63)!=6×5×46=20 C(6,3) = \frac{6!}{3!(6-3)!} = \frac{6 \times 5 \times 4}{6} = 20

Adding these two numbers up gives us the total number of successful outcomes, which is 60+20=8060 + 20 = 80.

Hence, the probability of the student passing is the ratio of the number of successful outcomes to the total number of possible outcomes, which is:

80120=23 \frac{80}{120} = \frac{2}{3}

So, the probability that the student passes the test is 23\boxed{\frac{2}{3}}.

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic, difficulty and ordering added by this site.