Consider the following two sets:

Set A = { 2,3,4,6 }
Set B = { 2,5,7,9 }

What is the probability that two randomly chosen elements from B would add up to be more than the product of two randomly chosen elements from A?

First, make sure that this isn't an AHA! question, by comparing the range of numbers involvd.

The sum of two elements of B range from 2+5=7 to 7+9=16

The Product of two elements of A range from 2*3=6 to 4*6=24

So the ranges overlap, and it is a legitimate question.

Since there are only 6 ways to pair the four elements of each set, we could build a 6 x 6 chart of all possible outcomes, an work it out by brute arithmatic, but I can't think of an "elegant" answer.

Posted by TomM on 2002-05-29 16:47:20