EXERCISES 1
1. Find the number of possible 10 character passwords under the following restrictions: (Note there are
26 letters in the alphabet.)
(a) All characters must be lower case letters.
(b) All characters must be lower case letters and distinct.
(c) Letters and digits must alternate and be distinct (as in “1w2x9c4u5s” or “a1b2c3d4e5”).
(d) All characters must be lower case, distinct, and in alphabetical order. (e.g., “abfghikmno” is
allowed, but not “bafghikmno”).
(e) The word can only contain the upper case letters A and B.
(f) The word can only contain the upper case letters A and B, and must contain each of these letters.
(g) The word can only contain the upper case letters A and B, and must contain an equal number of
each.
2. Find the number of di↵erent words that can be formed by rearranging the letters in the following words:
(Include the given word in the count.)
(a) NORMAL
(b) HHTTTT
(c) ILLINI
(d) MISSISSIPPI
3. How many ways are there to seat 10 people, consisting of 5 couples, in a row of seats (10 seats wide) if
(a) the seats are assigned at random?
(b) all couples are to get adjacent seats?
4. Assume the final exams are given over a period of 6 days, with 3 slots per day, so that there are a total
of 18 final exam slots. If you have 5 classes, each with a final exam, what is the probability that your
5 finals fall onto di↵erent days, assuming that the 5 classes all have di↵erent final exam slots?
5. What is the probability that in a group of n no two people share a common birthday? Work out the
probabilities numerically for n = 20, 30, 40, 50, 60. (Assume there are 365 days in a year.)
6. Six people get into an elevator at the ground floor of a hotel which has 10 upper floors. Assuming each
person gets o↵ at a randomly chosen floor, what is the probability that no two people get o↵ at the
same floor?
7. Suppose you record the birthdays of a large group of people, one at a time (just like in the birthday
simulation posted on the course webpage) until you have found a match, i.e., a birthday that has already
been recorded.
(a) What is the probability that it takes more than 20 people for this to occur?
(b) What is the probability that it takes exactly 20 people for this to occur?
8. Suppose you record the birthdays of a large group of people, one at a time, until you have found a
person whose birthday matches your own birthday. What is the probability that it takes exactly 20
people for this to occur?
9. An urn (box) contains 30 balls, of which 10 are red and the other 20 blue. Suppose you take out 8
balls from this urn, without replacement. What is the probability that among the 8 balls in this
sample exactly 3 are red and 5 are blue?
[Link] a committee of 10 has to be selected from a group of 100 people, of which 40 are men and 60
are women.
(a) How many ways are there to choose such a committee?
(b) How many ways are there to choose the committee so that exactly half of the members are men?
(c) What is the probability that a randomly selected committee of 10 consists of exactly 5 men and 5
women?
[Link] a state lottery a player has to choose 6 (distinct) numbers out of 54 numbers. At each drawing, 6
numbers are drawn at random, without replacement, from these 54 numbers. You win a first prize if
all 6 drawn numbers agree with the ones you picked, a second prize if exactly 5 of the drawn
numbers agree, etc. Compute the probabilities of winning a first prize, a second prize, etc.