Q:

A group of students consists of five people in all; two women and three men. They agree to take turns taking notes in lecture. One person at a time will be selected at random from the group (without replacement) until everyone has had a turn. The expected value of the number of people selected before and including the first time a woman has a turn is ________ .

Accepted Solution

A:
Answer:The expected value of the number of people selected before and including the first time a woman has a turn is 2 people.Step-by-step explanation:The expected value is calculated as:E(X)=X1*P(X1) + X2*P(X2) + X3*P(X3) + X4*P(X4)Where X1, X2, X3 and X4 are the events in which a women is selected for the first time in the first, second, third and fourth turn respectively. Additionally, P(X1), P(X2), P(X3) and  P(X4) are their respective probabilities.P(X1) is calculate as:The total ways that the 5 students can be organized is given by a rule of multiplication in which we have 5 options for the first turn, 4 options for the second turn, 3 options for the third turn, 2 options for the fourth turn and 1 option for the fifth turn. So it is:__5_ * _4_ *  3      * 2      *   1     =   1201st         2nd    3rd      4th       5thAt the same way we can calculate the total of ways in which the first student selected is a women: we have 2 women for the first turn, 4 people, one woman and 3 men for second turn, 3  options for the third turn, 2 options for the fourth turn and 1 option for the fifth turn. So it is:__2_ * _4_ *  3      * 2      *   1     =   481st         2nd    3rd      4th       5th Then the probability P(X1) is:[tex]P(X1)=\frac{48}{120}=0.4[/tex]At the same way we can calculate the other probabilities:[tex]P(X2)=\frac{3*2*3*2*1}{120}=\frac{36}{120}=0.3[/tex][tex]P(X3)=\frac{3*2*2*2*1}{120}=\frac{24}{120}=0.2[/tex][tex]P(X4)=\frac{3*2*1*2*1}{120}=\frac{12}{120}=0.1[/tex]Then, replacing values on the expected value we get:E(X)=(1*0.4)+(2*0.3)+(3*0.2)+(4*0.1)=2Finally, the expected value of the number of people selected before and including the first time a woman has a turn is 2 people.