Two fair dice (one red and one green) are rolled. What is the probability that the sum is 5, given that the green one is either 4 or 3?

2 Answers
Apr 1, 2017

Probability = 1/6=16

Explanation:

Let AA be the event that the sum of the two dice is 55
Let BB be the event that the green die is either a 33 or 44

Then we want P( A | B)P(AB) which we calculate using the conditional probability formula:

P( A | B) = (P(A nn B)) / (P(B)) P(AB)=P(AB)P(B)

Consider first P(A nn B)P(AB) which we can calculate using

P(A nn B) = (n(A nn B)) / (n(T)) P(AB)=n(AB)n(T)

Where, n(T)n(T) is the total number of possible outcomes. As there are two dices then each has 66 possible outcomes, making n(T)=36n(T)=36.

And, n(A nn B)n(AB) is the number of outcomes where the total is 55 and the green die is a 33 or a 44.

If G=3 => R=2 G=3R=2
If G=4 => R=1 G=4R=1

And so n(A nn B)=2n(AB)=2, and therefore we have:

P(A nn B) = 2/36 = 1/18 P(AB)=236=118

Now, let use calculate P(B)P(B) in a similar fashion:

P(B) = (n(B))/(n(T)) P(B)=n(B)n(T)

Where n(B)n(B) is the number of outcomes for which the green die is a 33 or a 44. For this outcome we have:

If G=3 => R=1,2,3,4,5,6 G=3R=1,2,3,4,5,6
If G=4 => R=1,2,3,4,5,6 G=4R=1,2,3,4,5,6

And so n(B)=12n(B)=12, and s before n(T)=36n(T)=36, and so:

P(B) = 12/36 = 1/3 P(B)=1236=13

And so we can now calculate:

P( A | B) = (1/18) / (1/3) = 3/18 = 1/6 P(AB)=11813=318=16

Apr 1, 2017

See other answer for a "proper" discussion of how to evaluate conditional probabilities.
The explanation (below) is simply offered as an alternate, quick-and-dirty way of seeing this result.

Explanation:

If green is color(green)33 or color(green)44
and red is color(red)11, color(red)22, color(red)33, color(red)44, color(red)55, or color(red)66

{: (,,,color(green)("green"),), (,ul("Sum of"),ul(" | "),ul(color(green)3),ul(color(green)4)), (color(red)("red"),color(red)1," | ",4,color(magenta)5), (,color(red)2," | ", color(magenta)5,6), (,color(red)3," | ", 6,7), (,color(red)4," | ", 7,8), (,color(red)5," | ", 8,9), (,color(red)6," | ", 9,10) :}

As can be seen from the table:
color(white)("XXX")there are a total of 12 possible outcomes
and
color(white)("XXX") only color(magenta)2 of those outcomes meet the requirement that the total be 5

So the probability is 2/12 = 1/6