A committee of 3 has to be formed randomly from a group of 6 people.

Question

A committee of 3 people must be formed randomly from a group of 6 individuals. If Tom and Mary are both part of this group of 6, what is the probability that Tom will be chosen for the committee, while Mary will not?

A.  \frac{1}{10}  
 
B.  \frac{1}{5}

C.  \frac{3}{10}

D.  \frac{2}{5}

E.  \frac{1}{2}

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

Official Solution:

A committee of 3 people must be formed randomly from a group of 6 individuals. If Tom and Mary are both part of this group of 6, what is the probability that Tom will be chosen for the committee, while Mary will not?

A.  \frac{1}{10}  
B.  \frac{1}{5}  
C.  \frac{3}{10}  
D.  \frac{2}{5}  
E.  \frac{1}{2}

We need to find the probability of having Tom (T), not Mary (NM), and another person who is not Mary (NM) on the committee (T, NM, NM).

The probability of this combination (T, NM, NM) can be calculated as follows:

P(T, NM, NM)=3*\frac{1}{6} * \frac{4}{5} * \frac{3}{4}=\frac{3}{10}

We multiply by 3 because the (T, NM, NM) scenario can occur in 3 different ways: (T, NM, NM), (NM, T, NM), or (NM, NM, T).

Answer: C

coelholds · Answer

3C6 = 20, which means that 20 groups of 3 are possible to be formed.

T _ _ => 2C5 = 10, which means that 10 groups of 3 will have TOM

Now here is the tip. When a problem ask you to calculate the number of times that something NOT happen, you calculate the number of times that something HAPPENS, and then calculate the difference:

T M _ => = 4, which means that 4 groups will have TOM and MARY.

Thus 10 - 4 = 6, which means that only 6 groups will have TOM but NOT mary

The probability is 6/20 = 30%

Is this the right answer? You know, everybody is human... Maybe I did some mistake in the process.... :wink:

sdrandom1 · Answer

Number of ways of chosing 3 out of 6 people = 6C3 = 20.

Now T should always be there in the committe. So we have to chose 2 people out of 5, but we are given that Mary should NOT be in the committe. So all we need to do is select 2 people out of 4 people = 4C2 = 6.

Hence probability of Tom in the committte and Mary NOT in the committe = 6/20 = 3/10 = 30%

lgon · Answer

Sample space for selecing committe of 3 people out of 6 6C3
Number of way, both TOM AND mary are excluded and committe can be formed 4C3
Number of way, when both are there in teh committe 4C1,
So probability when either of them are there are not= (6C4-(4C3+4C1))/6C3 =60%
In case, only one has to be there, 60%/2 = 30%

jeeteshsingh · Answer

IMO 3 / 10

4C2 / 6C3

Another way to look at this is:

We have three units - Tom (T), Mary (M) & the Rest (R).

Total ways of making a community of 3 from 6 people = 6 x 5 x 4 = 120

Now ways the community can be formed with Tom in it and Mary NOT in it:
TRR
RTR
RRT

TRR posb = 1 (way of picking Tom) x 4 (4 people left excluding Tom and Mary) x 3 (3 people left after excluding Tom, Mary and the person selected before) = 12
RTR and RRT have the possibility as TRR. Therefore possibilities the community can be formed with Tom in it and Mary NOT in it = 12 + 12 + 12 = 36

Hence probability  = \frac{36}{120} = \frac{3}{10}

Cheers!
JT

teal · Answer

A committee of 3 has to be formed randomly from a group of 6 people. If Tom and Mary are in this group of 6, what is the probability that Tom will be selected into the committee but Mary will not?

A.  \frac{1}{10} 
B.  \frac{1}{5} 
C.  \frac{3}{10} 
D.  \frac{2}{5} 
E.  \frac{1}{2}

Look for any of the three variants: Tom-notMary-notMary, notMary-Tom-notMary, notMary-notMary-Tom. The probability of one such variant is  \frac{1}{6} * \frac{4}{5} * \frac{3}{4} = \frac{1}{10}  . The answer to the question is  3*\frac{1}{10} = \frac{3}{10}  .

Why can't this be 5C3/ 6C3 = 1/2? Where did I make mistake when I applied combination formula approach? I know that this leads to wrong answer.

GyanOne · Answer

Here is why 5C3 is wrong: 
5C3 is the total number of ways to select 3 people from 5. If Tom is one of the 5 people, 5C3 does not count ONLY those ways in which Tom will be included. It counts the number of ways in which 3 people can be selected from 5 people (including Tom). This will include selections which do not include Tom, and so overstate the number of ways of always including Tom in the selection.

The correct solution: 
Tom will always be selected, so select the other 2 people from the remaining 4 people. Number of ways = 1 * 4C2 = 6
Total number of ways to select 3 people from 6 = 6C3 = 20 
Therefore probability = 6/20 = 3/10

Bunuel · Answer

You can solve this problem with direct probability approach as well. We need the probability of T, NM, NM (Tom, not Mary, not Mary).  P(T, NM, NM)=3*\frac{1}{6} * \frac{4}{5} * \frac{3}{4}=\frac{3}{10} , we are multiplying by 3 since {T, NM, NM} scenario can occur in 3 different ways: {T, NM, NM}, {NM, T, NM}, {NM, NM, T}.

Answer: C.

GMATPill · Answer

For anyone who's still confused, here's some more clarification:

For the subcommittee, you basically want to choose Michael, then choose 2 people who do not include Mary. Order matters - meaning Michael in the 1st slot should be counted separately from Michael in the 2nd and 3rd slots.

(Out of 1 available Michael, pick that 1 Michael) * (Out of remaining 4 people excluding Mary, pick 2 people for the 2nd and 3rd slots)
= -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (Out of 6 available people pick 3 for the committee)

= (1C1) * (4C2) / (6C3)

= (1) * (4*3 / 2) / (6*5*4 / 3!)
= 6 / 20

= 3 / 10 = 30%

shreyashid · Answer

This is how I solved it: 
There are 3 positions to be filled with 6 people : 
Pos 1: Probability that Tom has to be INCLUDED - 1/6
Pos 2: Probability that Mary has to be EXCLUDED - 4/5 (out of 5 remaining people 4 people can be taken in 4 ways )
Pos 3 : Probability that one out of the remaining fill the 3rd position : 3/4
Now the 3 positions are interchangeable : Therefore X3
Solution: (1/6*4/5*3/4)*3 = 3/10

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

The total number of committees of 3 people from a group of 6 people that can be formed is 6C3 = (6 x 5 x 4)/(3 x 2) = 20. The number of committees can be formed in which Tom will be selected and Mary will not consists of Tom’s being chosen for a spot, and 2 of 4 individuals (but not Mary) chosen for the remaining 2 spots:

1C1 x 1C0 x 4C2 = 1 x 1 x (4 x 3)/2 = 6

Therefore, the probability that Tom will be selected for the committee but Mary will not is 6/20 = 3/10.

Answer: C

Bambi2021 · Answer

6 people and 3 spots (= x)

x x x y y y

Probability Tom will be one of the x: 3/6.

Two spots left:

x x y y y

Probability Mary will be one of the y: 3/5.

1/2 * 3/5 = 3/10

Posted from my mobile device

pierjoejoe · Answer

we have 6C3 possible ways of arranging 6 people in 3 spaces.
we have 5C2 possible ways of creating a group that contains T (T_ _)
we have 4C1 possible ways of creating a group that contains T and M together (T M _)

meaning that we have 5C2 - 4C1 possible groups that contains T but not T and M together.

the probability of extracting a group of 3 containing Tom but not Mary is 
(5C2-4C1)/6C3 = (10-4)/20 = 6/20

mdtangidulhasan · Answer

I had the same question. However, after giving it a second thought, I found 5C3 represents both when Tom is in the committee and when he is not in the committee. So, in our calculation, from 5C3 we gotta exclude the part when   Tom is not being included in the committee  . And that's   4C3   when you only make the 3 member committee excluding both Tom and Mary. So the calculation should look like this:

/ 6C3 = (10-4)/20 = 3/10

jnxci · Answer

Hi Bunuel,

No doubt your solution is right! I just have a quick question about the arrangement of (T,NM,NM), in which you multiply by 3. However could you please explain why couldn't we multiply by 6 just as when we use the combinatoric method of 4 other people beside Tom & Mary (for i.e: A, B, C,D) with Tom? Isn't it (T, A,B) is different from (T,B,D) ...etc? In other words we under-count as we multiply by 3?

A committee of 3 has to be formed randomly from a group of 6 people.

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A committee of 3 has to be formed randomly from a group of 6 people.

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