PROBABILIT

Y
Objectives

 At the end of the lessons students should:

 Understand the concept of probability

 Assess the chance of an event occurring

 Identify the sample space for a simple

experiment

 Calculate the theoretical probability of

simple events

 (Addition for exclusive events,

multiplication for independent events)
SAMPLE SPACE
 A sample space is a collection or a set of
possible outcomes of a random experiment.
 An outcome is a possible result of an
experiment.
 The subset of possible outcomes of an
experiment is called events.
 A sample space may contain a number of
outcomes which depends on the
experiment.
SAMPLE SPACE
 The samples spaces for a random experiment is written within curly braces “ { }
“.
 There is a difference between the sample space and the events.
 For rolling a die, we will get the sample space, S as {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 }
 Whereas the event can be written as {1, 3, 5 } which represents the set of odd
numbers and { 2, 4, 6 } which represents the set of even numbers. T
TOSSING A COIN
 When flipping a coin, two outcomes are possible, such as head and tail. Therefore
the sample space for this experiment is given as
 Sample Space,S = { H, T } = { Head, Tail }
 When flipping two coins, the number of possible outcomes are four. Let, H1 and
T1 be the head and tail of the first coin and H2 and T2 be the head and tail of the
second coin respectively and the sample space can be written as
 Sample Space, S = { (H1, H2), (H1, T2), (T1, H2), (T1, T2) }
 In general, if you have “n” coins, then the possible number of outcomes will be 2 n
 Sample space for tossing three coins is written as
 Sample space S = { HHH, HHT, HTH, HTT, THH, THT, TTH, TTT}
Example
 Three fair coins are tossed
a) Determine the sample space for the possible
outcomes
b) Hence calculate probability of 3 heads appearing
c) Probability of at least 2 tails appearing

 Solution
 Part A: Sample space S = { HHH, HHT, HTH,
HTT, THH, THT, TTH, TTT}
 Part b : P(3 heads) = P(HHH) =
 Part c: P(at least 2 tails)= P(HTT, THT, TTH,
TTT) = or or 0.5
Experimental
Probability
 We can use experimental probability to
approximate the probability of an
event. An experimental probability of an
event is found by comparing the
number of times the event occurs to the
total number of trials.
 When an actual experiment is carried
out, results may vary.
Question
 Martin has a bag of marbles. He
removed one marble at random, recorded
the color and then placed it back in the
bag. He repeated this process several
times and recorded his results in the
table. Find the experimental
probability of drawing each color. 

 P(Red)=
 P(Blue)=
 P(Green)
 P(yellow)
 Theoretical Probability
 We can also find the theoretical probability of an event.

 Example:
A bag contains 10 red marbles, 8 blue marbles and 2 yellow marbles. Find the theoretical
probability of getting a blue marble.
 Solution:
There are 8 blue marbles. Therefore, the number of favorable outcomes = 8.
There are a total of 20 marbles. Therefore, the number of total outcomes = 20
 P(Blue marble) = =
Questions
 A spinner is divided into eight equal sectors, numbered 1 through 8.
a) What is the probability of spinning an odd numbers?
b) What is the probability of spinning a number divisible by 4?
b) What is the probability of spinning a number less than 3?
 A box of buttons is made up as follows: 5 blue, 6 green, 8 red, 4 yellow and 7 white. One button is
picked from the box.
Calculate:
(a)P(Red)
(b)P(blue)
(c)P(yellow)
(d)P(white)
(e)If 4 red buttons are taken from the box and are not replaced, what is the new probability of
picking a red button?
Experimental
Probability vs
Theoretical
Probability
Experimental
Probability vs
Theoretical
Probability
 Toolsie
Volume 2
pg.905
QUESTIONS
Exercise 15I
#1, 2, 7, 9
Probability Of Mutually
Exclusive Events

 Two events are said to be mutually exclusive if

they cannot happen at the same time.
 For example, if we toss a coin, either heads or
tails might turn up, but not heads and tails at the
same time.
 Probability Of Mutually Exclusive
Events
 If A and B are mutually exclusive events
then the probability
of A happening OR the probability
of B happening is P(A) + P(B).
 P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B)
Independent Events

 Events are independent if the

outcome of one event does not affect
the outcome of another. For example,
if you throw a die and a coin, the
number on the die does not affect
whether the result you get on the
coin.
 If A and B are independent events,
then the probability of A
happening AND the probability of B
happening is P(A) × P(B).
Let’s Try
 Example:  Solution
 Two fair dice, one colored white and one  (a) P(R2 and W5) =
colored red, are thrown. Find the
probability that:
 (b)P(W1 and R even) =
 a) the score on the red die is 2 and white
die is 5.
b) the score on the white die is 1 and red
die is even.
QUESTIONS

Toolsie Volume 2

Ex 15J #6, 8 Pg 908

Ex 15 K # 2, 3 Pg. 909
The End!