The Fundamental

Counting Principle
The Fundamental Counting Principle
Pedro and friends agreed to toss a die individually to
determine who will be the first to sing in their sing-along
video showdown. The person who gets 1 dot in the die after
tossing it will sing first, 2 dots will sing second, and so on.
Here is the result of the individual toss of the die:
Pedro 3 Anna 2
Jude 6 Marissa 4
James 1 Jane 5
The Fundamental Counting Principle
They also agreed that a duet will be performed
between (1, 4), (2, 5), and (3, 6). So, there will be a
duet for the pairs James and Marissa, Anna and
Jane, and Pedro and Jude.

Tossing a die is an example of an experiment. An

experiment is a situation that results into different
outcomes.
The Fundamental Counting Principle
An outcome in the given experiment is a result
where 1 turns up after a toss, 2 turns up after a
toss, or 3 turns up after a toss, but not necessarily
in that order.
A sample space is a set of all possible outcomes.
In the experiment, the sample space is the set S =
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}. Each of the elements 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
and 6 is called a sample point.
The Fundamental Counting Principle
An event is a single outcome or group of
outcomes. An example of an event A with a single
outcome is getting a special number. In this case, A
= {1}. If B is an event of getting an even number,
then B = {2, 4, 6}. Here, event B is composed of
group outcomes. We can see that A and B are
subset of S. Hence an event is a subset of the
sample space.
The Fundamental Counting Principle
Let us perform some experiments and identify the sample
space, outcomes, and some events.
1. Tossing two different coins, or tossing a coin twice
Let us do some listing of outcomes and events
Outcome from each coin: H or T
Some outcomes from two coins: HT or HH
Sample Space = {HH, HT, TH, TT}
The Fundamental Counting Principle
Some events
a. Event that both heads occur = {HH}
b. Event that at least one tail occurs = {HT,
TH, TT}
c. Event that no head occurs = {TT}
The Fundamental Counting Principle
We can use a tree diagram to determine the sample space
as follows:
The Fundamental Counting Principle
2. Tossing two distinct dice simultaneously.
We have this list.
Outcomes from each die: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Some outcomes from the two dice: (1, 4), (3,
2), (5, 4), (6, 6)
The Fundamental Counting Principle
Here is the sample space in table form.
The Fundamental Counting Principle
The sample space has 36 sample points.
Some events
a. Event showing equal number
= {(1, 1), (2, 2), (3, 3), (4, 4), (5, 5) (6, 6)}
b. Event showing a sum of 7
= {(1, 6), (2, 5), (3, 4), (4, 3), (5, 2), (6, 1)}
c. Event showing the least and greatest sums
= {(1, 1), (6, 6)}
The Fundamental Counting Principle
Fundamental Counting Principle
Counting principle involves making some choices from
many given possibilities.
Example 1:
If we are to choose from plain rice or garlic rice, and
from fried fish, beef tapa, or egg omelet for breakfast, how
many possible choices of breakfast meal are there in all?
The Fundamental Counting Principle
Let us call the rice choices as R1 and R2.
Let us call the topping choices as V1, V2, and V3.
The tree diagram below can be used to show all the choices
we can make.
The Fundamental Counting Principle
Example 2: A die and a coin are tossed, what
is the probability of obtaining
a. a head and an even number?
b. a tail and a number less than 6?
Sample Space 1 2 3 4 5 6
Head (H) (H, 1) (H, 2) (H, 3) (H, 4) (H, 5) (H, 6)

Tail (T) (T, 1) (T, 2) (T, 3) (T, 4) (T, 5) (T, 6)

The Fundamental Counting Principle
a. Let E be the event obtaining a head and an
even number. Then E = {(H, 2), (H, 4), (H, 6)}
Hence, n(E) = 3 and P(E) =
The Fundamental Counting Principle
b. Let G be the event of obtaining a tail and a
number less than 6.
Then G = {(T, 1), (T, 2), (T, 3), (T, 4), (T, 5)}
Hence, n(G) = 5 and P(G) =
P(G) =