2006 Paper 1 Q12

Year: 2006
Paper: 1
Question Number: 12

Course: LFM Stats And Pure
Section: Conditional Probability

Difficulty: 1500.0 Banger: 1499.3

Problem

Oxtown and Camville are connected by three roads, which are at risk of being blocked by flooding. On two of the three roads there are two sections which may be blocked. On the third road there is only one section which may be blocked. The probability that each section is blocked is \(p\). Each section is blocked independently of the other four sections. Show that the probability that Oxtown is cut off from Camville is \(p^3 \l 2-p \r^2\). I want to travel from Oxtown to Camville. I choose one of the three roads at random and find that my road is not blocked. Find the probability that I would not have reached Camville if I had chosen either of the other two roads. You should factorise your answer as fully as possible. Comment briefly on the value of this probability in the limit \(p\to1\).

No solution available for this problem.

Rating Information

Difficulty Rating: 1500.0

Difficulty Comparisons: 0

Banger Rating: 1499.3

Banger Comparisons: 2

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Problem source
Oxtown and Camville are connected by three roads, 
which are at risk of being blocked by flooding. 
On two of the three roads there are two sections 
which may be blocked. On the third road 
there is only one section which may be blocked. 
The probability that each section is blocked is $p$. 
Each section is blocked independently of the other four sections. 
Show that the probability that Oxtown is cut off from 
Camville is $p^3 \l 2-p \r^2$.
I want to travel from Oxtown to Camville. I choose 
one of the three roads at random and find that my road is not blocked. 
Find the probability that I would not have reached Camville
if I had chosen either of the other two roads.
You should factorise your answer as fully as possible. 
Comment briefly on the value of this probability in the limit $p\to1$.