Review the key concepts, formulae, and examples before starting your quiz.
🔑Concepts
The theoretical probability of an event is given by , where is the number of favorable outcomes and is the total number of possible outcomes in the sample space.
Complementary events: The probability of an event not occurring is . The sum of the probabilities of all possible outcomes in a sample space is always .
Combined Events (Addition Rule): For any two events and , the probability that or (or both) occurs is given by .
Mutually Exclusive Events: These are events that cannot happen at the same time. For such events, and therefore .
Independent Events: Two events are independent if the occurrence of one does not affect the probability of the other. Mathematically, .
Conditional Probability: The probability of event occurring given that event has already occurred is written as .
Tree Diagrams and Venn Diagrams: These are visual tools used to represent sample spaces and calculate probabilities for compound events, especially when dealing with sampling with or without replacement.
📐Formulae
💡Examples
Problem 1:
In a group of 30 students, 18 study Biology, 15 study Chemistry, and 8 study both. If a student is chosen at random, find the probability that they study Biology or Chemistry.
Solution:
Let be the event of studying Biology and be the event of studying Chemistry. , , and . Using the addition rule:
Explanation:
We apply the addition rule for inclusive events. Since 8 students overlap in both categories, we subtract the intersection to avoid double-counting.
Problem 2:
Two events and are such that and . If and are independent, find and .
Solution:
Since the events are independent:
Now, find the union:
Explanation:
Independence allows us to multiply probabilities to find the intersection. We then use that intersection in the general addition rule.
Problem 3:
A bag contains 5 red balls and 3 blue balls. Two balls are drawn one after another without replacement. Find the probability that both balls are red.
Solution:
Let be the event the first ball is red and be the event the second ball is red. After drawing one red ball, 4 red balls and 7 total balls remain.
Explanation:
Because the drawing is without replacement, the events are dependent. We use conditional probability to find the probability of the second event.