0
$\begingroup$

(A) 55% of the students at a certain college are females.

(B) 7% of the students in this college are majoring in computer science.

(C) 4% of the students are women majoring in computer science.

If a student is selected at random, find the conditional probability that

(a) the student is female given that the student is majoring in computer science;

(b) this student is majoring in computer science given that the student is a female.

$\endgroup$
1
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Hint: think fractions, not percentage. I find it easier to manipulate concepts. $\endgroup$
    – Martigan
    Nov 5, 2014 at 15:40

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0
$\begingroup$

You want to use Bayes rules here:

$$P(A|B)=\frac{P(A\cap B)}{P(B)}$$

So for (a), let $A$ be the event that the student is female and $B$ be the event that the student is a CS major. Therefore, the conditional probability of female given cs major is $\frac{0.04}{0.07}=\frac{4}{7} \approx 57\%$.

For (b), reverse the events, so the conditional probability for cs major given female is $\frac{0.04}{0.55} \approx 7\%$.

$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .