Error Analysis  The sample space of picking a 2 character password using the letters Upper Y​, Upper O​, Upper R​, Upper B​, Upper P​, Upper G​, where double letters are not allowed is shown. Your teacher asks the class to find the probability of choosing a password with no Ys. Manuela incorrectly says that the probability is three halves

. Find the correct probability then decide which error Manuela might have made.
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Question content area top right
Part 1
Possible Combinations
​(Upper Y​,Upper O​)
​(Upper O​,Upper R​)
​(Upper R​,Upper B​)
​(Upper B​,Upper P​)
​(Upper P​,Upper G​)
​(Upper G​,Upper Y​)
​(Upper Y​,Upper R​)
​(Upper O​,Upper B​)
​(Upper R​,Upper P​)
​(Upper B​,Upper G​)
​(Upper P​,Upper Y​)
​(Upper G​,Upper O​)
​(Upper Y​,Upper B​)
​(Upper O​,Upper P​)
​(Upper R​,Upper G​)
​(Upper B​,Upper Y​)
​(Upper P​,Upper O​)
​(Upper G​,Upper R​)
​(Upper Y​,Upper P​)
​(Upper O​,Upper G​)
​(Upper R​,Upper Y​)
​(Upper B​,Upper O​)
​(Upper P​,Upper R​)
​(Upper G​,Upper B​)
​(Upper Y​,Upper G​)
​(Upper O​,Upper Y​)
​(Upper R​,Upper O​)
​(Upper B​,Upper R​)
​(Upper P​,Upper B​)
​(Upper G​,Upper P​)
Question content area bottom
Part 1
The probability of choosing a password with no Ys is
  
one third
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font size increased by 19
​(Simplify your​ answer.)

1 answer

To find the probability of choosing a password with no Ys, let's first identify the total sample space and the number of passwords without Ys.

Step 1: Determine the total number of possible combinations

The letters are: Y, O, R, B, P, G.

Since double letters are not allowed, we have 6 letters total. For a 2-character password, we can choose the first character in 6 ways and the second in 5 ways, giving us:

\[ \text{Total combinations} = 6 \times 5 = 30 \]

Step 2: Determine the number of combinations with no Ys

If we exclude the letter Y, the available letters are: O, R, B, P, G. This gives us 5 letters to choose from.

We can choose the first character in 5 ways and the second character in 4 ways (since we cannot repeat characters):

\[ \text{Combinations with no Ys} = 5 \times 4 = 20 \]

Step 3: Calculate the probability of choosing a password with no Ys

The probability is given by the formula:

\[ P(\text{no Ys}) = \frac{\text{Number of combinations with no Ys}}{\text{Total combinations}} = \frac{20}{30} \]

This simplifies to:

\[ P(\text{no Ys}) = \frac{2}{3} \]

Conclusion

The correct probability of choosing a password with no Ys is \( \frac{2}{3} \).

error analysis

Manuela incorrectly stated that the probability is three halves, which suggests that she may have:

  1. Miscounted the total number of combinations or combinations without Ys.
  2. Confused the structure of fractions leading to an incorrect result of greater than 1.

In reality, the correct probability indicates that there are more combinations that contain Y than there are without it, hence the probability cannot exceed 1.