1.

2.

3. In a lower sixth form there are 43 students who are studying either statistics or physics or both
statistics and physics . 28 students study statistics and 19 students study physics . If a student is selected
at random , what is the probability that he or she is studying (a) both physics and statistics (b) physics
only.

4. Out of forty students, 14 are taking English Composition and 29 are taking Chemistry. (a) If five
students are in both classes, how many students are in neither class? (b)How many are in either class?
c) What is the probability that a randomly-chosen student from this group is taking only the Chemistry
class?

5.
6

1. A coin is biased so that, on each toss, the probability of obtaining a head is 0.4. The coin is tossed
twice.
(a) Calculate the probability that at least one head is obtained.
(b) Calculate the conditional probability that exactly one head is obtained, given that at least one
head is obtained.

2. When a woman has read a book which she has bought she either keeps it or gives it away. She
keeps 30% of the books of fiction and 40% of the books of non-fiction. On a particular day she buys
two books, one fiction and one non-fiction. Find the probability that exactly one of them will be given
away.

3. It is known that the proportion of men who are right-handed is 0.8 and that the proportion of
women who are right-handed is 0.8. A man is chosen at random, then a woman is chosen at
random, then another man, and so on alternately. The process continues until a right-handed
person is chosen.
(a) Find the probability that the right-handed person is the second woman chosen. [2]
(b) By summing an appropriate series, or otherwise, show that the probability that the right-
handed person is a woman is 1 .
6

4. Each time a table tennis player serves, the probability that she wins the point is 0.6, independently
of the result of any preceding serves. At the start of a particular game, she serves for each of the
first five points. Calculate the probability that, for the first two points of this game,
(a) she wins both points, [1]
(b) she wins exactly one of these two points. [2]

Calculate the probability that, for the first five points of this game,
(c) she loses all five points, [1]
(d) she wins at least one of these five points. [2]
5. A bus serving a number of outlying villages is due to arrive in a particular village at 10 o'clock.
Past experience tells the people waiting in the village for the bus that the probability of the service
being cancelled on any day is 0.05, and that, when it runs, the probability of the bus being more
than 10 minutes late is 0.1. Using a tree diagram, or otherwise, find the conditional probability
that the service has been cancelled, given that at 10 minutes past 10 the bus has not arrived in the
village. [6]

6. A penalty shoot-out in a game of hockey requires each of 2 players to take a penalty hit to try to
score a goal. In a simple model, each player has a probability of 0.8 of scoring a goal, and
independence is assumed. Calculate the probability that exactly one goal is scored from the two
hits. [2]
In an alternative model, the probability of the second player scoring is reduced to 0.7 if the first
player does not score. Calculate the probability that the second player has scored, given that only
one goal is scored. [4]
7. A computer user trying to connect by telephone to an on-line information service finds that several
attempts at dialing are often needed before a successful connection is established. He finds that, on
average, there is a probability of 0.25 of establishing a connection on any given attempt.
Find the probability that, when trying to establish a connection,
(a) exactly 4 attempts will be required. [2]
(b) fewer than 4 attempts will be required. [4]

8. Students have to pass a test before they are allowed to work in a laboratory. Students do not re-
take the test once they have passed it. For a randomly chosen student, the probability of passing
1
the test at the first attempt is . On any subsequent attempt, the probability of the student failing
3
is half the probability of failing on the previous attempt. By drawing a tree diagram, or otherwise,
26
(a) show that the probability of a student passing the test in 3 attempts or fewer is , [4]
27
(b) find the conditional probability that a student passed at the first attempt, given that the
student passed in 3 attempts or fewer. [2]