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JEE Mathematics 2024 Question with Solution

A fair die is tossed repeatedly until a six is obtained. Let XX denote the number of tosses required, and let a=P(X=3)a = P(X = 3), b=P(X3)b = P(X \geq 3), and c=P(X6X>3)c = P(X \geq 6 \mid X > 3). Then b+ca\frac{b+c}{a} is equal to:

  • A

    1212

  • B

    1111

  • C

    1313

  • D

    1414

Answer

Correct answer:A

Step-by-step solution

Standard Method

Given: A fair die is tossed until the first six appears, so XX follows a geometric distribution with success probability p=16p = \frac{1}{6} and failure probability q=56q = \frac{5}{6}.

Find: b+ca\frac{b+c}{a} where a=P(X=3)a = P(X=3), b=P(X3)b = P(X \geq 3), and c=P(X6X>3)c = P(X \geq 6 \mid X > 3).

First calculate aa:

a=P(X=3)=q2p=(56)216=25216a = P(X=3) = q^2 p = \left(\frac{5}{6}\right)^2 \cdot \frac{1}{6} = \frac{25}{216}

Now calculate bb. For X3X \geq 3, the first two tosses must not be six:

b=q2=(56)2=2536b = q^2 = \left(\frac{5}{6}\right)^2 = \frac{25}{36}

Next calculate c=P(X6X>3)c = P(X \geq 6 \mid X > 3). Given X>3X > 3, no six has appeared in the first three tosses. To have X6X \geq 6, tosses 44 and 55 must also not be six. By the memoryless property of the geometric distribution:

c=q2=(56)2=2536c = q^2 = \left(\frac{5}{6}\right)^2 = \frac{25}{36}

Substitute these values:

b+ca=2536+253625216=503625216=503621625=12\frac{b+c}{a} = \frac{\frac{25}{36} + \frac{25}{36}}{\frac{25}{216}} = \frac{\frac{50}{36}}{\frac{25}{216}} = \frac{50}{36} \cdot \frac{216}{25} = 12

Therefore, the correct option is A.

Use geometric memoryless property

Given: XX is geometric with success probability 16\frac{1}{6}.

Find: b+ca\frac{b+c}{a}.

For a geometric random variable,

  • P(X=3)=q2pP(X=3) = q^2 p
  • P(X3)=q2P(X \geq 3) = q^2
  • P(X6X>3)=q2P(X \geq 6 \mid X > 3) = q^2 because after conditioning on X>3X > 3, the process restarts from toss 44.

So,

b+ca=q2+q2q2p=2p=216=12\frac{b+c}{a} = \frac{q^2 + q^2}{q^2 p} = \frac{2}{p} = \frac{2}{\frac{1}{6}} = 12

Therefore, the correct option is A.

Common mistakes

  • Using P(X3)P(X \geq 3) as a long infinite sum without noticing it is simply the probability that the first two tosses are not six. This makes the work longer and can introduce errors. Instead, use P(X3)=(56)2P(X \geq 3)=\left(\frac{5}{6}\right)^2 directly.

  • Misreading the conditional probability P(X6X>3)P(X \geq 6 \mid X > 3) as P(X6)P(X \geq 6). This ignores the conditioning information. After conditioning on X>3X>3, only two additional non-six outcomes are needed, so use the memoryless property.

  • Taking a=P(X=3)a = P(X=3) as (16)3\left(\frac{1}{6}\right)^3. That would mean getting a six on all three tosses, which is not the event described. The correct event is two failures followed by one success: (56)216\left(\frac{5}{6}\right)^2 \cdot \frac{1}{6}.

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