Q. A box contains 9 tickets numbered 1 to 9 inclusive. If 3 tickets are drawn from the box without replacement. The probability that they are alternatively either {odd, even, odd} of {even, odd, even} is

A) $\frac{5}{17}$
B) $\frac{4}{17}$
C) $\frac{5}{16}$
D) $\frac{5}{18}$
Explanation

(d)
In out of 9 tickets, 5 tickets are odd number and 4 tickets are even numbers.
$\therefore$Required probability
$= \left\{ \frac{\ ^{5}C_{1}}{\ ^{9}C_{1}} \times \frac{\ ^{4}C_{1}}{\ ^{8}C_{1}} \times \frac{\ ^{4}C_{1}}{\ ^{7}C_{1}} + \frac{\ ^{4}C_{1}}{\ ^{9}C_{1}} \times \frac{\ ^{5}C_{1}}{\ ^{8}C_{1}} \times \frac{\ ^{3}C_{1}}{\ ^{7}C_{1}} \right\}$
$= \frac{5}{9} \times \frac{4}{8} \times \frac{4}{7} + \frac{4}{9} \times \frac{5}{8} \times \frac{3}{7}$
$= \frac{140}{504} = \frac{5}{18}$

Dr. Abubacker
Reviewed by Dr. Abubacker

Physics Educator & NEET/JEE Specialist

Ph.D. in Physics with 19+ years of teaching experience.