Eric Nicholas K's answer to Candice lim's Secondary 4 A Maths Singapore question.

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Eric Nicholas K
Eric Nicholas K's answer
5997 answers (Tutor Details)
Good morning Candice! This is an alternative approach which is definitely more suitable for a Sec 4 student.
Candice lim
Candice Lim
2 years ago
Ohh…..thank you so much Mr Eric :)
I was having a hard time trying to figure out the previous working. I am now having my HBL. Once I am done with the zoom meetings, I will review your advised solution immediately.
I need to let you know that I really appreciate your continuous effort in helping me searching for an easier to understood solution.
Once again thank you very much!

I hope you have a great day ahead and pls take care :D
Candice lim
Candice Lim
2 years ago
Good afternoon Mr Eric :)
Yes...I can fully understand this question now. Thanks alot for your clear explanation!
Eric Nicholas K
Eric Nicholas K
2 years ago
Good evening Candice! I found an even easier idea for this question while I was working on a similar question with my student a while ago. The fact that it takes at least n draws to get an 8 means that no matter what happens, the first (n - 1) draws must have not been an 8.

Regardless of what happens later, everything which happens after the (n - 1) draws can be classified as taking “at least n draws”. You can verify this with numbers and tree diagrams.

As such, the priority here is to focus only on the first (n - 1) tries, each with probability of 7/8 so we have (7/8)^(n - 1).
Candice lim
Candice Lim
2 years ago
Good evening Mr Eric.
Thank you so much for coming back to me. I am very grateful that you have been looking out for a better way to explain this question to me :)
Yes, that is also how I understood it :D