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The Last Baby (Posted on 2003-10-08) Difficulty: 4 of 5
A baby is added to a hospital nursery. Before the baby was added there were two boys in the nursery and an uncounted number of girls. After the new baby is added a baby is selected at random among all the babies. The selected baby is a boy.

What is the probability that the added baby was a girl?

  Submitted by Ravi Raja    
Rating: 2.7778 (9 votes)
Solution: (Hide)
We apply Baye's Theorem here:

Let events A1,...,Ak form a partition of the space S such that P(Aj)>0 for j=1,...,k, and let B be any event such that P(B)>0. Then for i=1,...,k,

P(Ai|B) = P(Ai)*P(B|Ai) / Sum for j=1 to k of P(Aj)*P(B|Aj).

Now let,

B=boy selected

A1=boy added

A2=girl added

g=number of girls before baby is added.

P(A2|B) = (1/2)*(2/(3+g)) / [(1/2)*(2/(3+g)) + (1/2)*(3/(3+g))] = 0.4

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)
  Subject Author Date
Puzzle ThoughtsK Sengupta2023-03-28 09:03:22
re: It really does seem too easy.Ben2003-11-28 01:14:00
It really does seem too easy.Sara2003-11-10 19:17:32
my takeLee2003-11-05 00:57:52
Bayes TheoremRobert Bell2003-11-04 13:17:44
Could be easy.Bill2003-10-22 13:19:04
this is too easy, so easy that it scares me and i probably will mess upiggyb3872003-10-15 20:43:25
re: assumptionCharlie2003-10-11 23:01:58
assumptionA2003-10-11 22:30:37
No Subjecte2003-10-09 19:00:47
re(4): I have not read Charlie's post yetFatBoy2003-10-09 12:36:20
re(3): I have not read Charlie's post yetSilverKnight2003-10-09 11:21:29
re(3): I have not read Charlie's post yetfwaff2003-10-09 08:52:48
re(2): I have not read Charlie's post yetFatBoy2003-10-09 07:33:47
re(3): solution - different manner of looking at thisSilverKnight2003-10-09 02:23:10
re(2): solution - different manner of looking at thisCharlie2003-10-08 22:16:23
Solutionre: solution - different manner of looking at thisSilverKnight2003-10-08 16:26:52
re: I have not read Charlie's post yetCharlie2003-10-08 15:46:02
re: does the lightbulb mean they're right?SilverKnight2003-10-08 13:52:11
re: does the lightbulb mean they're right?FatBoy2003-10-08 13:41:47
does the lightbulb mean they're right?matt white2003-10-08 13:35:35
QuestionWho else hasn't read Charlie's post yet?SilverKnight2003-10-08 13:18:36
SolutionI have not read Charlie's post yetFatBoy2003-10-08 13:04:41
SolutionsolutionCharlie2003-10-08 10:25:35
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