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Intact triples after removing six blocks

Question

Fifteen blocks form 5 distinct sets of 3 blocks each. Six of the 15 blocks are removed uniformly at random. What is the expected number of sets that still have all three blocks?

Short answer

12/1312/13. A particular set survives if all 6 removed blocks come from the other 12, probability (126)/(156)=1265\binom{12}{6}/\binom{15}{6}=\tfrac{12}{65}. By linearity, the expected number of surviving sets is 5⋅1265=12135\cdot\tfrac{12}{65}=\tfrac{12}{13}.

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