In many women's tennis matches they play best-out-of-three sets. In other words, they play until one player wins two sets, and there are no ties. Lourdes and Mariana are two rivals, though Lourdes seems to win about six sets for every four that Mariana wins. Use the random numbers table below to simulate 10 matches between Lourdes and Marian. Let an entry in the table correspond to one set, 0-5 corresponds to Lourdes winning the set, and 6-9 corresponds to Mariana winning the set. Begin each match with a different highlighted number, and use it with up to two entries below it to represent a match.
In how many of the ten simulated matches did Mariana win?
A) 0
B) 1
C) 2
D) 3

Question

In many women's tennis matches they play best-out-of-three sets. In other words, they play until one player wins two sets, and there are no ties. Lourdes and Mariana are two rivals, though Lourdes seems to win about six sets for every four that Mariana wins. Use the random numbers table below to simulate 10 matches between Lourdes and Marian. Let an entry in the table correspond to one set, 0-5 corresponds to Lourdes winning the set, and 6-9 corresponds to Mariana winning the set. Begin each match with a different highlighted number, and use it with up to two entries below it to represent a match.
In how many of the ten simulated matches did Mariana win? 
A) 0 
B) 1 
C) 2 
D) 3

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To simulate a match, we need to use two entries from the table below our highlighted number. Let's start with the first match, highlighted in the top-left corner (0 in the second row). Reading across the first row, we have 80479, 11281, 99491, 04800, 32866, but we need only the digits in the thousands' place and hundreds' place (in other words, we ignore the last two digits of each entry): 407, 128, 949, 480, 286. The first set goes to Mariana because the first entry is 9, which corresponds to her winning. The second set also goes to Mariana since the second entry is 8. So Mariana wins this match 2-0.

Now we repeat this process for the other nine matches, using a different highlighted number to start each time. Our results are:

Match 1: Mariana wins 2-0
Match 2: Lourdes wins 2-1
Match 3: Lourdes wins 2-0
Match 4: Lourdes wins 2-1
Match 5: Mariana wins 2-0
Match 6: Lourdes wins 2-0
Match 7: Mariana wins 2-0
Match 8: Lourdes wins 2-1
Match 9: Mariana wins 2-1
Match 10: Lourdes wins 2-0

Out of the ten simulated matches, Mariana won in 3 of them, so the answer is (D) 3.

In Many Women's Tennis Matches They Play Best-Out-Of-Three Sets