Friday, July 31, 2009

airoplane seating

100 passengers are boarding an airplane with 100 seats. Everyone has a ticket with his seat number. These 100 passengers boards the airplane in order. However, the first passenger lost his ticket so he just take a random seat. For any subsequent passenger, he either sits on his own seat or, if the seat is taken, he takes a random empty seat. What's the probability that the last passenger would sit on his own seat?


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1/2. either the last person will sit in his own seat or he wont.
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownAugust 1, 2009 at 5:43 AM

    1/2 ..

    Explanation is bit tedious..
    but can be easily explained using induction.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AfaqAugust 3, 2009 at 9:46 AM

    50% probable..
    when he gets inside the plane he has only one seat empty which is either his or not his..so probability is 50%

    ReplyDelete
  3. SujathaAugust 12, 2009 at 11:04 AM

    yup, you both are right..

    ReplyDelete

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