1 Statistics 205 Lab One: Pre-Lab.

Copyright Jim Stallard 2022

Statistics 205 (L01/L02)

Lab One: Pre-Lab

The purpose of this pre-lab is to familiarize you with the concepts that you will be working
with and quizzed upon during Lab One, which will be carried out within WebWorK.

To carry out both Lab One and the Lab One Quiz, you will require access to WeBWorK.

Go to the STAT 205 L01/L02 WeBWorK page.

Your login name is the U of Calgary username. For example, student StatMan with a
University of Calgary email address statman@ucalgary.ca has a would log in with

Your Password is your University of Calgary IT password.

For more information about WeBWorK, please see the link:

https://science.ucalgary.ca/mathematics-statistics/current-students/undergraduate/tools-
and-resources/webwork

The purpose of Lab One is to further expose you to the foundational aspects of probability
theory and provide you with more practice to compute the probability of an event. After the
completion of the (i) Pre-Lab (ii) Lab One Exercises and (iii) Lab One Quiz, you will be able to

• Compute the probability of an event

• Differentiate between a frequency probability and a theoretical probability
• Compute the probability of two compound events, such as
I. 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴 𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂 𝐵𝐵)
II. 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝐵𝐵)
III. 𝑃𝑃(𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐴𝐴 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐵𝐵)
IV. 𝑃𝑃(𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐴𝐴 𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐵𝐵)
and explain the meaning of these compound events, in context
• Determine if two events A and B are mutually exclusive
2 Statistics 205 Lab One: Pre-Lab. Copyright Jim Stallard 2022

For each probability computed, use four decimals in your answers. You will not require
STATCRUNCH for Lab One.

Pre-Lab Exercise 1: The following contingency resulted from data collected from class of 101
first-year University of Calgary students. Each student was asked their (i) gender (at the
time, a binary choice) and (ii) have they used marijuana in the past six months, or not:

Male Female
Used marijuana 17 8
Had not used marijuana 30 46

Defining the events

𝑀𝑀: a first-year student is a Male

𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝑀𝑀: a first-year student is not a Male (or a Female)
𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈: had used marijuana in the past six months
𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈: had not used marijuana in the past six months

(a) Convert the counts in the provided contingency table to probabilities.

(b) You are to randomly pick one of these 101 first-year University of Calgary students.
Compute the probability that (i) this student is male (ii) this student has used marijuana in
the past six months.
(c) Consider the probabilities you computed in part (b). Are these computations empirical
probabilities or theoretical probabilities?

Pre-Lab Exercise 2: Refer to Pre-Lab Exercise 1. Consider the student chosen from all first-
year University of Calgary students from part (b) of Pre-Lab Exercise 1.

(a) Compute the probability that this student is a male and had used marijuana in the past six
months. Use four decimals in your answer.
(b) Compute the probability this student is a male or had used marijuana in the past six
months.
(c) From these data and your computations, are the events 𝑀𝑀 and 𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈 mutually exclusive
events? Why or why not? Ensure you can justify your answer using probability.
(d) Compute the probability that the student chosen is female or had not used marijuana in
the past six months.
(e) Compute the probability that the student chosen is neither female nor had used
marijuana in the past six months.

Pre-Lab Exercise 3: Consider two triangular die, each having four sides labeled 1, 2, 3, or 4.
Both die are tossed simultaneously, and the side each die lands on is to be observed. Imagine
that one die is of the colour blue, the other is of the colour red.

(a) Define 𝐴𝐴 to represent the event that the bottom-sides sum to 5. Compute 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴).
3 Statistics 205 Lab One: Pre-Lab. Copyright Jim Stallard 2022

(b) Is the probability you computed in part (a) and empirical probability or a theoretical
probability?
(c) Let 𝐵𝐵 be the event that product of the bottom-sides is equal to 6, that is (𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 −
𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 1 ∗ 𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 − 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 2) = 6. Compute 𝑃𝑃(𝐵𝐵).
(d) Consider 𝐴𝐴 𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂 𝐵𝐵. Explain in your own words what this represents, then compute
𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴 𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂 𝐵𝐵)
(e) Now, consider the event 𝐴𝐴 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝐵𝐵. Repeat part (d), explaining the meaning of this then
compute 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝐵𝐵).
(f) Compute 𝑃𝑃(𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐴𝐴 𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐵𝐵) and explain the meaning of this event.
(g) Compute 𝑃𝑃(𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐴𝐴 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐵𝐵) and explain the meaning of this event.
(h) Refer to your answer in part (g). Are 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐴𝐴 and 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐵𝐵 mutually exclusive events? Explain.

Self-Check: Answers to Pre-Lab Exercises

The following are answers-only to the pre-lab exercises, and exist for you to check if your
results are correct.

Pre-Lab Exercise 1: (a)

P(Male) P(Female) = P(not Male)

P(Used marijuana) 17/101 = 0.1683 8/101 = 0.0792
P(Had not used marijuana) 30/101 = 0.2970 46/101 = 0.4555

17+30 17+8
(b) (i) 𝑃𝑃(𝑀𝑀) = 101 = 0.4653 (ii) 𝑃𝑃(𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈) = 101 = 0.2475 (c) These are theorectical
probabilities. Ensure you can explain why these were computed using the theoretical
probability method rather than the empirical probability method. If you wish to compute the
chosen first-year male student used marijuana in the past six months, then P(Male) = 0.1683
would be a probability computed empirically; this is because you would be using a ‘subset’
of first-year males (47) rather than inspecting ALL first-year males.

17 55
Pre-Lab Exercise 2: (a) 𝑃𝑃(𝑀𝑀 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈) = 101 = 0.1683 (b) 𝑃𝑃(𝑀𝑀 𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂 𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈) = 101 = 0.5445
(c) The events 𝑀𝑀 and 𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈 are not mutually exclusive (why?) (d)
30+8+46 30
𝑃𝑃(𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀 𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈) = 101 = 0.8317 (e) 𝑃𝑃(𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈𝑈) = 101 =
0.2970

Pre-Lab Exercise 3: (a) 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴) = 0.25 (b) This is a theoretical probability (why?) (c) 𝑃𝑃(𝐵𝐵) =
2
16
= 0.125 (d) 𝐴𝐴 𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂 𝐵𝐵 represents that the two bottom-sides add to “5” or are products of
4
“6”. 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴 𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂 𝐵𝐵) = 16 = 0.25. and this can happen 4 ways out of 12: (2,3),(3,2), (4,1), (1,4)
(e) 𝐴𝐴 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝐵𝐵 is the event where the two bottom-sides add to “5” AND are products of “6”,
2
this can happen the following ways; (2,3),(3,2), and 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝐵𝐵) = 16 = 0.125
4 Statistics 205 Lab One: Pre-Lab. Copyright Jim Stallard 2022

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(f) 𝑃𝑃(𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐴𝐴 𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐵𝐵) = 𝑃𝑃�𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 (𝐴𝐴 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝐵𝐵)� = 1 − 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝐵𝐵) = 1 − 16 = 16 = 0.875. This
represents the event that the two bottom-sides do not sum to “5” or they are not products
4 12
of “6”. (g) 𝑃𝑃(𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐴𝐴 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐵𝐵) = 𝑃𝑃�𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 (𝐴𝐴 𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂 𝐵𝐵)� = 1 − 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝐵𝐵) = 1 − 16 = 16 = 0.75.
This is the chance that the two bottom-sides to not sum to “5” and are not products of “6”;
in other words, neither a sum of 5 nor a product of 6. (g) The events “not A” and "𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐵𝐵" are
14
not mutually exclusive events since 𝑃𝑃(𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐴𝐴 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐵𝐵) = 16 ≠ 0. This means that one
cannot have a sum of the bottom-sides that is not equal to 5 and at the same time have the
product of the bottom sides that is not equal to 6. The products of 6 are (2,3), (3,2), (1,6),
(6,1); the last two cannot happen for these two triangular die because a bottom-side of 6 is
not possible; the first two will result in a sum of 5. So, a “not a sum of 5” and “not a product
of 6” can occur. As a side note: the events “not A” and “B” are mutually exclusive events.
0
One can compute (and discover) that 𝑃𝑃(𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝐴𝐴 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝐵𝐵) = 16 = 0 .