guerrero25
In the game of Yahtzee, a "full house" occurs when a player rolls five fair dice and the result is two dice showing one number and the other three all showing another (three of a kind). What is the probability that a player will roll a full house on one roll of each of the three remaining dice if that player has already rolled a pair on the first two?
A. 1/3
B. 5/54
C. 5/72
D. 5/216
E. 1/1296
VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:Correct Answer: B
If the player has already rolled a pair, there are two different scenarios under which the full house could be completed. Either the player rolls a third die that matches the first two rolls and then another pair, or the player rolls three matching die. If the player starts with AA, we'll call these scenarios ABB and BBB. Let's consider the ABB scenario first: the probability of rolling A (and matching the existing pair) is 1/6 The probability of rolling a different number, B, on the second die is 5/6 Finally the probability of matching B on the third roll is again 1/6 The probability of achieving this combination is 1/6 x 5/6 x 1/6, or 5/216 There are three different permutations through which the ABB combination could be achieved: ABB, BAB, and BBA. 5/216 x 3 = 15/216, the number of possibilities that make the first scenario true. The second scenario is simpler. The probability of rolling one die, B, that is different from the original AA pair is 5/6 The probability of rolling each of the remaining dice and matching B is 1/6 and then 1/6 again. So the probability of rolling BBB is 5/6 x 1/6 x 1/6 = 5/216 The two scenarios are not mutually exclusive, so add their probabilities together. 15/216 + 5/216 = 20/216, which reduces to 5/54