Posted by Soroban on October 12, 2002 at 14:03:29:
In Reply to: probability question posted by RIck on October 12, 2002 at 00:34:00:
: a secretary matches n letters with n envelopes completely at random. What is the sample space for this experiment?
: What is the probability of at least one correct match, and it's limit and n -> infinite
Hello, Rick!
At what level of math is this course? Certainly not an undergraduate course.
The first question is straight-forward:
the same space is the n! possible permutations of the letters.
The second is a problem called the "Bernoulli-Euler Problem of the
Misaddressed Envelopes" ~ which has a long and intricate dervation.
Bottom line: the probability approaches 1/e = 0.3678...
Ask your teacher/professor to show you why.