What is the probability of getting correct directions at MIT?

Eidos
Messages
107
Reaction score
1

Homework Statement



You are lost in the campus of MIT, where the population is entirely composed of brilliant students and absent-minded professors. The students comprise two-thirds of the population,
and anyone student gives a correct answer to a request for directions with probability \frac{3}{4} (Assume answers to repeated questions are independent, even if the question and the person asked are the same.) If you ask a professor for directions, the answer is always false.

You ask a passer-by whether the exit from campus is East or West. The answer is East. What is the probability this is correct?

Homework Equations



P(A|B)=\frac{P(B|A)P(A)}{P(B)} {Baye's Theorem}

P(A\cap B) = P(A)P(B) {For independent events A and B}

P(A\cup B) = P(A)+P(B)-P(A\cap B)

The Attempt at a Solution


My approach was to use Baye's Theorem. The problem is that I don't have any prior probabilities.

Let P(P) be the probability that the person is a prof.
P(S) '' '' is a student.
P(E) '' '' answer is East.
P(T) " " correct answer is given.

Now

P(T|E) = \frac{P(E|T)P(T)}{P(E)}

with

P(T)=P(S \cap T \cup P \cap T)

and P(E) = 0.5.

Is this the right way to go about it?

As a heuristic, a later question says that if you ask the same person again, and they answer East, you need to show that the probability that East is True is 1/2.

Any points in the right direction would be most welcome :smile:
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Using a tree might make this easy to solve.

P(student) * P(correct | student) = 2/3*3/4 = 6/12

P(student) * P(~correct | student) = 2/3*1/4 = 2/12

P(prof) * P(correct | prof) = 1/3*0 = 0

P(prof) * P(~correct | prof) = 1/3*1 = 4/12

Only one branch offers a correct answer since professors always answer incorrectly.
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
Back
Top