1

8 PROBABILITY

TASK 8.1

1. For each statement below, write down whether it is:

impossible unlikely even chance likely certain
a It will snow in January.
b The next baby born will be a girl.
c You will go to the toilet within the next week.
d A friend will give you $10 000 within the next hour.
e You will get ‘heads’ if you toss a coin.
2. a Copy this probability scale.

impossible unlikely even chance likely certain

0 1

Use an arrow to place each event below on your probability scale:

b You get a 5 if you roll a dice.
c It will be the weekend within the next 7 days.
d You will get a red card if you take one card from a pack of playing
cards (26 cards out of 52 are red in a full pack).
e You will wake up in Mexico tomorrow morning.
f You will eat during the next 24 hours.
3. Sandeep throws a dice 180 times. The dice lands 72 times
on a ‘2’.
a How many times should the dice land on a ‘2’ if the dice
is fair?
b From Sandeep’s results, find the relative frequency of getting a ‘2’.
 
number of times event happens
relative frequency=
total number of trials
c Do you think the dice is fair? Explain the answer you give.

4. Theonie throws a coin 120 times. The coin lands on ‘tails’

58 times.
a From Theonie’s results, find the relative frequency of getting
‘tails’.
b Do you think the coin is fair? Explain the answer you give.

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 Probability 2

5. Sylvaine is throwing an 8-sided dice. She throws the dice 240 times.
The table below shows her results.

Score 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Frequency 27 24 36 27 30 27 33 36

a How many times should each number come up if the dice

is fair?
b From Sylvaine’s results, use a calculator to find the relative
frequency of getting each score (1 up to 8).
c Do you think the dice is fair? Explain the answer you give.

TASK 8.2

1. Shada has 15 cards as shown below:

T E L E V I S I O N C A L L S
Shada picks a card at random.
What is the probability that she picks the letter:
a C b E c L d S
2. Angus has a bag which contains 7 toffees, 4 mints and 2 chocolates.
Angus picks one of these sweets.
What is the probability that he chooses a:
a mint b mint or toffee c mint or chocolate

3. A bag contains 10 beads. There are 6 blue,

3 red and 1 green.
a Find the probability of selecting a red bead.
B R R
b 2 more blue beads are put in the bag. Find B
the probability of selecting a blue bead. B B R
B B G

4. 24 people come for a job interview. 9 of these people wear glasses and 4 of
them have contact lenses.
Find the probability that the person chosen for the job:
a has contact lenses
b wears glasses
c does not wear glasses or contact lenses.

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 Probability 3

5. Yalda has six $5 notes, ten $10 notes and four $20 notes in her purse. If
she takes out one note, what is the probability that it will be:
a a $20 note b a $5 or $10 note c a $50 note.
d She buys a new toaster with a $20 note and a $10 note. If she
now took out a note, what is the probability that it would be a
$10 note?
6. A coin is thrown 48 times. How many times would you expect
it to land on ‘heads’?
7. A dice is thrown 120 times.
How many times would you expect to get a:
a 3 b 5 c 4 or 5 d square number

8. This spinner is spun 80 times. How many

times should the spinner land on a ‘0’?

0 0
0

1
0

9. The probability of Moroka Swallows winning a football match

is 2 . If they play 42 matches in a season, how many matches are
3
they likely to win?

10. The probability of Minh going to the pub on any one day is 2 . How many
7
times is he likely to go to the pub in the next fortnight?

11. A bag contains 5 blue balls, 4 red balls

and 1 yellow ball.
Lora takes out one ball at random and
R
then puts it back. If she does this 70 times, B B
how many times would she take out: R R
B B
a a yellow ball R
b a blue ball Y B
c a blue or red ball.

12. A bag has only red and blue discs in it. The probability of picking
red is 2 .
5
a What is the probability of picking a blue disc?
b Javier picks out 4 red discs without replacing them. What is the
smallest number of blue discs that could have been in the bag?
c If Javier picks out a total of 5 red discs without replacing them, what is
the smallest number of blue discs that could have
been in the bag?

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 Probability 4

TASK 8.3

1. At a cafe, each person has a main course and a pudding.

One lunchtime the menu is:
Main course – Fish pie or Cheese salad
Pudding – Ice cream or Chocolate cake
List all the different meals that could be ordered.

2. Here are 2 spinners. If I spin both spinners,

I could get a ‘1’ and a ‘4’ (1, 4).
a List all the possible outcomes. 9

2
27

8
b How many possible outcomes are there? 4 12
1

3. Three babies are born. List all the boy/girl mixes

(example: B G B – boy, girl, boy).
4. Odval has 4 films (Antz, King Kong, Jungle Book and The Terminator).
He only has time to watch two of the films. List all the possible
pairs of films that he could watch.
5. Nayana has 2 spinners. She spins both spinners
and multiplies the numbers.

3
2

For example a ‘3’ and a ‘4’ give 12.

2
3
a Copy and complete this grid to show all the 1 1 4
possible outcomes.
4

b Find the probability of getting an answer

of 4 when the 2 numbers are multiplied × 1 2 3 4
together.
1

3 12

6. Marie and Don play a game

2 involving a spinner
1 and a dice.
3
5 4

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 Probability 5

Marie wins if the spinner gives a square number and the dice gives
a multiple of 3.
Don wins if the spinner gives an even number and the dice gives a factor
of 15.
Any other outcome is a draw.
Is this game fair to both players? Give reasons for your answer.

7. The probability of a bus being late is 0.2. What is the probability of the
bus not being late?

8. The probability of Korfa getting up before 11 a.m. on a Saturday morning is 1 .

What is the probability of Korfa not getting up before 11 a.m. on
4

a Saturday morning?
9. The probability of Kokumo playing certain sports is shown in the
table below.

Hockey Football Badminton Netball

0.5 0.1 x 0.2

a What is the probability of Kokumo playing hockey or netball?

b What is the probability of Kokumo playing badminton?
10. The probability of picking a picture card from a pack of cards is 3 .
13
What is the probability of not picking a picture card?


11. If the probability of South Korea winning the next football World Cup is
0.15, what is the probability of South Korea not winning the next World Cup?
12. Valentin gets to work by either car, bus, metro or bike. The table
shows the probability of each being used.

Car Bus Metro Bike

0.25 0.4 0.2
a What is the probability of Valentin going to work by bus.
b What is the probability of Valentin going to work by car or bus.
c On his 20 working days in March, how many days would
you expect Valentin to take the metro?

TASK 8.4

1. Tumelo keeps throwing a drawing pin to find out how many times it
will land ‘point down’. The table below shows the total number of times
the drawing pin has landed ‘point down’ after every 20 throws.
Number of throws 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Number of ‘point down’ 5 13 21 26 36 47 53 59 68 76

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 Probability 6

a Work out the relative frequency of the drawing pin landing ‘point down’
after every 20 throws (round off to 2 decimal places if necessary).
b Plot a graph of the relative frequency of ‘point down’ against the
total number of throws.
c Write down the number around which the relative frequency of
‘point down’ is settling.
2. Five people throw a biased dice several times. They record how many
times the dice lands on a ‘2’.
Number Number Relative
Name of throws of 2s frequency
Helena 100 41 0.41
Sandeep 200 83 0.415
Xiao Ping 150 60 0.4
Grigor 450 99 0.22
Carli 700 273 0.39
One of these five people made a mistake when recording the number of
2s. Who do you think this was? Give a reason for your answer.

TASK 8.5


1. Three sets are defined as follows.
e ¼ {the positive whole numbers from 1 to 9}
P ¼ {the prime numbers between 1 and 9}
O ¼ {the odd numbers between 1 and 9}
Copy and complete the following Venn diagram to illustrate this
information.

ε
P O

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 Probability 7


2. From a sample of 50 customers who visit a cafe, 23 order only a drink, 6
order only food, 20 order food and a drink, and 1 orders neither.
Copy and complete this Venn diagram to illustrate this information.
e ¼ {the 50 customers}
D ¼ {those who order a drink}
F ¼ {those who order food}

ε
D F


3. From a group of 30 people surveyed, 18 of them said they enjoyed going
to the cinema, 10 of them said they enjoyed going to the theatre, and 7
said they enjoyed both.
Illustrate this information in an appropriate Venn diagram.


4. From a group of 25 professional musicians, 15 can play the piano, 18 can
play the guitar, and 3 can play neither.
a Illustrate this information in an appropriate Venn diagram.
b If one of the musicians is chosen at random, what is the probability
that
i they can play both instruments
ii they can play the piano but not the guitar
iii they can play only one of the two instruments?

TASK 8.6

1. A bag contains 8 blue discs and 3 green discs. 1st disc 2nd disc
One disc is removed at random then replaced. 8
Another disc is then removed. 11
a Copy and complete the tree diagram to show B
all the outcomes. 8
Find the probability that: 11
b Both discs are blue. B
c Both discs are green.
d One disc is blue and one disc is green
(in any order). G

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 Probability 8

2. The probability of Igme swimming on any one day is 0.3. Thursday Friday
a Copy and complete the tree diagram showing 0.3
whether he swims or not on a Thursday swims
and Friday. 0.3
b Find the probability that: not
swims
i Igme does not swim on either day.
ii Igme swims on one day only.
not

3. A spinner is spun three times.

a Copy and complete the tree diagram to show
the probability of getting a ‘2’. 1 2
4 3

1st spin 2nd spin 3rd spin 1

4
1
2
4 not
2
1 2
4 not
2

not
3 2
4 not

b Find the probability that the spinner lands on:

i three 2s
ii no 2s
iii at least one 2
4. A dice is thrown three times. Find the probability that the dice lands on:
a exactly two 3s
b at least one 3
5. The probability of Yuka eating a curry on any day is 0.2.
Draw a tree diagram to help you find the probability that on a Friday,
Saturday and Sunday:
a Yuka has a curry each day
b Yuka has a curry on exactly one day only
c Yuka has a curry on at least one day

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 Probability 9

TASK 8.7

1. There are 3 males and 5 females in a family of 1st person 2nd person 2
8 people. Two of the family members are 7
male
chosen at random. 3
a Copy and complete the tree diagram. 8
Find the probability that: male female
b Both people are female.
c Exactly one person is female. 3
7
female 5 male
8
female
2. Rieger has 7 cola cubes and 2 jelly beans. He eats 2 sweets randomly.
a Draw a tree diagram to show all outcomes.
Find the probability that:
b Rieger eats 2 cola cubes.
c Rieger eats 1 cola cube and 1 jelly bean.
d Rieger eats 2 sweets of the same type.
3. There are 12 beads in a bag. 5 beads are red and the rest are blue.
Three beads are taken out at random, one at a time, without replacement.
a Draw a tree to show all outcomes.
Find the probability that:
b All three beads are blue.
c At least one bead is red.
d Exactly one bead is blue and two beads are red.
4. A box contains 15 counters. x counters are red and the remainder
are blue. Two counters are removed at random. What is the probability,
in terms of x, of removing:
a Two blue counters?
b At least one blue counter?
c One counter of each colour?

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