What Is the Probability of Choosing a Hexadecimal Number with Distinct Digits?

AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around calculating the probability of selecting a four-digit hexadecimal number with distinct digits. For part (a), it is established that with repetition allowed, there are 1,296 possible combinations. In part (b), with distinct digits, the total combinations drop to 360. The challenge arises in part (c), where the correct total number of hexadecimal digits is clarified to be 16, not 15, leading to a revised calculation of 32,760 combinations with distinct digits out of 65,536 total combinations. The final probability calculation should reflect this adjustment for accuracy.
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1. Homework Statement


1.(a) How many 4 digit hexadecimal numbers can be formed using the hexadecimal digits 1. 5, 6, 9, A, C?(Repetition is allowed)

(b) How many four digit hexadecimal numbers with distinct digits can be formed using the hexadecimal digits above?

(c) What is the probability that a randomly chosen four digit hexadecimal number will have distinct digit?

Homework Equations


The number of ways of choosing r times from an n set is n!/(n-r)!


The Attempt at a Solution



For (a), since repetition is allowed, I did 6^4= 1296
For (b), since repetition is not allowed, I did 6!/(6-4)! = 6*5*4*3= 360

Now, (c) is where I start to run into problems.

since it no longer references the above set, then I am assuming that you should take all the possible Hex digits into consideration. Therefore there are 15 possible digits in the set.

Would you do, 15^4=50625 to get the total number of combination's possible (including repetitions) and then find out 15!/(15-4)! = 32760 to find out the possible combinations with distinct digits.

Therefore ending up with 32760/50625?

Please inform me if this is the correct answer,

Thank you in advance.
 
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Your method is correct, but there are 16 possible digits, 0 through F.
 
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