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Topic: Color Balls in a bag (Read 698 times) |
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ERIC H. ZENGULUS
Newbie
Posts: 11
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Color Balls in a bag
« on: Jun 27th, 2004, 10:28am » |
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There are N balls in the bag. Each one has a distinct color. You draw one ball randomly from the bag, record its color and put it back. Calculate the probability that after T draws you've seen M distinct colors. (T > 0, M > 0, M <= min(T, N) )
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« Last Edit: Jul 19th, 2004, 7:52pm by Icarus » |
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Nigel_Parsons
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Re: NEW: HARD: Color Balls in a bag
« Reply #1 on: Jun 27th, 2004, 5:28pm » |
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A bit difficult this one! It relies on the assumption (not stated) that N>M, also that T [smiley=eqslantgtr.gif] M Otherwise, it may be worth considering! If either of the above is not the case then the possibility is Zero
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ThudnBlunder
wu::riddles Moderator Uberpuzzler
The dewdrop slides into the shining Sea
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Re: NEW: HARD: Color Balls in a bag
« Reply #2 on: Jun 27th, 2004, 7:11pm » |
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on Jun 27th, 2004, 5:28pm, Nigel_Parsons wrote:A bit difficult this one! It relies on the assumption (not stated) that N>M, also that T [smiley=eqslantgtr.gif] M If either of the above is not the case then the possibility is Zero |
| No. For example, when N = M = T required probability = N!/NN So now you should be able to finish it off.
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« Last Edit: Jun 27th, 2004, 8:25pm by ThudnBlunder » |
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Barukh
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Re: NEW: HARD: Color Balls in a bag
« Reply #3 on: Jun 28th, 2004, 12:08am » |
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[smiley=blacksquare.gif] I get for the general case the following: NCM [sum]1 [le] k [le] M(-1)M-k MCk (k/N)T. Compare it to THUD&BLUNDER’s answer for M=T=N case. [smiley=blacksquare.gif]
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