Elementary probability problem involving multiple events

81 Views Asked by At

A company minibus has $9$ passenger seats and on a routine run it is estimated that the probability of any passenger seat being occupied is $0.58$. Calculate, correct to 3 decimal places, the probability that on a routine run there will be:

a) no passengers

b) one passenger

c) at least $2$ passengers

This is how I approached this problem:

$Let\quad O_n=n\space seats\space are\space occupied\\ P(O_n)=0.58^n$

So for question a:

$1-P(O_9)\approx 0.003$

For question b:

$P(O_1)=0.580$

For question c:

${\sum_{i=2}^9 0.58^i} - {\Pi_{n=2}^9 0.58^n}\approx 0.783$

I feel like I've gone in a whole different direction.

If I've done it wrong, can you please post explanations as to where I've gone wrong. I need it for my exam and this is the only section I struggle with.

Thank you :).

1

There are 1 best solutions below

2
On BEST ANSWER

For exactly $n$ seats to be occupied, you would need exactly $9-n$ seats to be unoccupied. There are $9\choose n$ ways for this to happen. Thus, the probability that exactly $n$ seats are occupied is $$P(O_n)={9\choose n}0.58^n(1-0.58)^{9-n}$$ Can you do the rest?