An Answer Page for Exercise 6

Exercise 6

Suppose we roll a pair of dice one time.

Let S be the event of getting a 7.
Let T be the event of getting either 7 or 9.

Are the events S and T dependent or independent ?


The events S and T are dependent.
One way to see this is to simply note that whenever S occurs, T must also occur.
So S certainly does effect the probability of T.

Another way to show that the events are not independent is to show that
P( S and T ) does not equal P( S ) * P( T ).

  P( S ) = 1 / 6
  P( T ) = P( 7 or 9 )   =   P( 7 ) + P( 9 )   =   ( 6 / 36 ) + ( 4 / 36 )
  = ( 10 / 36 )   =   5 / 18
 
  Since "getting a 7" and "getting a 7 or 9" can both happen only by getting a 7,
  P( S and T )   =   P( S )   =   1 / 6
 
  P( S ) * P( T )   =   ( 1 / 6 ) * ( 5 / 18 )   <   P( S and T )