Q:

A pair of fair dice is rolled once. Suppose that you lose ​$8 if the dice sum to 10 and win ​$11 if the dice sum to 11 or 12. How much should you win or lose if any other number turns up in order for the game to be​ fair?

Accepted Solution

A:
First find the possible dices rolls that give you 10, 11, and 12

Gives 10:
5,5
4,6
6,4

Gives 11 or 12:
5,6
6,5
6,6

The dice rolls have 6 * 6 = 36 possible combinations

The probability of getting a 10 is 3/32
The probability of getting an 11 or 12 is 3/32

multiplying those probabilities together with their reward/loss we have:

3/32 * -8 = -3/4
3/32 * 11 = 33/32

to make the game "fair" we need the probable amount of money you can win to be $0, so we can use the equation

-3/4 + 33/32 + (32/32 - 6/32)*x = 0

then you can just solve for x