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counting and probability intermediate
Problem
An element is randomly chosen from among the first rows of Pascal's Triangle. What is the probability that the value of the element chosen is ?
Note: The 1 at the top is often labelled the "zeroth" row of Pascal's Triangle, by convention. So to count a total of 15 rows, use rows 0 through 14.
Note: The 1 at the top is often labelled the "zeroth" row of Pascal's Triangle, by convention. So to count a total of 15 rows, use rows 0 through 14.
Solution
First we find the total number of elements in the first rows. The first row of Pascal's Triangle has one element, the second row has two, and so on. The first rows thus have elements. Instead of manually adding the summands, we can find the sum by multiplying the average of the first and last term by the number of terms, . The sum is , so there are elements. Now we find the number of ones in the first rows. Each row except the first has two ones, and the first row only has one. So there are ones. With ones among the possible elements we could choose, the probability is .
Final answer
\frac{29}{120}