Chuah. KMNS.

Maths Unit 1
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Chapter 8 Probability
An event is a set of outcomes that satisfy certain specific
Learning Outcomes conditions.
8.1 Probability Event  Sample space
a) Understand the concept of experiments, For example,
outcomes, sample spaces, events and A fair coin is tossed.
random selections. S {
b) State the basic laws of probability.
Now, we set some conditions for event A, B and
c) Find the probability of an event.
d) Determine the probabilities of the C.
intersection and the union of two events. A is the event “ number is greater than 4 ”.
e) Determine the conditional probability and B is the event “ the number is odd ”.
identify independent events. C is the event “ the number is a prime number ”.
f) Use of Venn diagrams, tree diagrams and
table of outcomes to solve probability
problems.

Experiments, outcomes, sample spaces & events

Let’s observe…

Example 1
List the sample space when two dice or a die is
tossed twice.

Experiment 1
Find the sample space for tossing a coin and a die.
1st of all, let’s look at the outcomes of a die and a
coin.
Outcomes is the result of a single trial of an experiment.
Tossing a coin can result in {Head(H), Tail(T)}.
Tossing a die can result in six different outcomes
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}.
Let A be an event of getting the sum of two
Sample space is the set of all possible outcomes of an outcomes are 6.
experiment (Usually denoted by S).
In the experiment tossing a coin and a die, the
sample space is the list of 12 pairs of values which
you can observe in the table below.

1 2 3 4 5 6
H (H,1) (H,2) (H,3) (H,4) (H,5) (H,6) Let B be an event of getting the sum of two
T (T,1) (T,2) (T,3) (T,4) (T,5) (T,6) outcomes is a multiple of 5.

Experiment 2
Three fair coins are tossed, so write down the
sample space S of the experiment.
Let H be head and T be tail. Then the sample space
is given by
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 2
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Basic Laws of Probability (Classical Probability) Example 3

In classical probability, all the outcomes in the If a family has six children, find the probability that
sample space are assumed to be equally likely to all the children are (a) girls, and (b) boys.
happen. Solution
For example, when a die is rolled, the outcomes can
1
be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 each with equal probability .
6
Thus, if S is a sample space of the probability
experiment, with n equally likely outcomes, then
the probability of event A , written as P ( A) is the
ratio
n( A)
P( A) 
n( S )

Example 2
Example 4
A fair die is tossed. The sample space is
A five-digit number is to be formed from digits 2, 3,
S  {1,2,3,4,5,6} . If A is the event “ the number is 5, 7 and 9, and repetitions are not allowed.
greater than 4”, B is the event “the number is odd”, (a) What is the probability that the number is
then C is the event “the number is a prime number”. an even number?
Find the probabilities for events A, B and C . (b) What is the probability that the number is
an odd number?
Solution (c) What is the probability that the number is
greater than 60000?
Solution
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 3
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Example 5 Example 6
A bag contains 4 red marbles, 3 green marbles and Mazni has a set of seven cards numbered 1 to 7. A
5 black marbles. A marble is drawn from a bag. card is drawn randomly from the set of cards. Find
Find the probability that the marble drawn is the probability that the number drawn is
(a) Red (a) 7 (b) not 7
(b) Green or black Solution
(c) White

Solution

2. If A is an event in the sample space S, then A is a

Basic Laws of Probability subset of S.
A S
1.Complementary Event 0  n( A)  n( S )
0 n( A) n( S )
 
S n( S ) n( S ) n( S )
Therefore, we have
A
A 0  P( A)  1

Example 7
Let A be the event ‘A does not occur’, and S the In a sample of 40 female students, 18 had type O
sample space. Then blood, 14 had type A blood, 6 had type B blood and
P( A )  1  P( A) 2 had type AB blood. A student is randomly
selected. Find the probability that the student
A is called the complementary of an event A. It selected had
can also be denoted as A' or A c . (a) type O blood
(b) type A blood
P(A) is the probability event A occurs. (c) neither of type O nor type A
Solution
P( A ) is the probability event A does not occur.

Let’s prove the result…

P( A )  1  P( A)
n( S )  n (frequency of occurrence of the S)
n( A)  r (frequency of occurrence of event A)
n( A )  n  r

n( A ) n  r r
P( A )    1   1  P( A)
n( S ) n n
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 4
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Example 11
Venn Diagram
Three unbiased coins are tossed simultaneously.
In a certain class, there are 30 students who Find the probability of getting
represent the school in at least one sport. Among (a) exactly two heads
them, 20 students are in the school hockey team and (b) at least two heads
24 students are in the school football team. How (c) at most one head
many students in the class represent the school in Solution
both hockey and football?

More examples

Example 10
Two dice are tossed, find the probability
(a) the sum of two numbers is 8
(b) the sum of two numbers are prime numbers
Solution
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 5
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Example 12
There are 100 form six students, of whom 20 are
studying biology, 15 are studying chemistry and
eight are studying both biology and chemistry. Find
the probability that a student chosen at random
(a) studies both biology and chemistry
(b) studies either biology or chemistry
Solution
(a) We can illustrate in a Venn diagram.

As there are eight students studying both biology

and chemistry the number 8 is written in the part of the
diagram that represents both Biology and Chemistry. The
total in the B circle must be 20, as there are 20 students
altogether studying Biology. Similarly the total number in
the C circle must be 15. Note that each student is only
represented once, even though they are taking both Biology
and Chemistry.

The shaded region on the Venn diagram above shows the

probability that the students studies both Biology and
Chemistry. The shaded region is written as B  C, and is
read as B intersection C. The probability that the student
studies both Biology and Chemistry is written P(B  C),
where
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 6
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

EXERCISES Basic Law of Probability (Continuous)

1. On a single toss of one die, find the 3. Additive Rule of Probability

probability of obtaining
a) a number 4 Let A and B be two events. The probability of the
1 union of two events A and B is the sum of the
Answer: probability of event A and B. This can be expressed
6
b) an odd number as
1 P( A  B)  P( A)  P( B)  P( A  B)
Answer: Where
2
c) an even number A  B means the event that A occurs or B occurs
1 or both event A and B occur
Answer:
2 A  B means the event that both events A and B
d) a number less than 4 occur together
1
Answer:
2 Venn Diagram to explain…
e) a number greater than 4 P( A  B)  P( A)  P( B)  P( A  B)
1
Answer:
3
f) an odd or an even number
Answer: 1

2. In a junior school class of 28 pupils, 7 are De Morgan Rule

in both a sports team and the school band. P( A ' B ')  P ( A  B ) '
There are 16 pupils involved in sports P( A ' B ')  P ( A  B ) '
teams and 10 in the school band. Find the
probability that a pupil chosen at random
Other useful formulae
a) is only in the school band P( A  B' )  P( A)  P( A  B)
3
Answer: P( A' B)  P( B)  P( A  B)
28
b) is in either a sports team or the school
19 Try to use Venn Diagram to illustrate the formulae above.
band Answer:
28
c) is in neither a sports team nor the
19
school band Answer:
28
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 7
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Example 13 Example 15
1 A club consists of 80 members. 50 are females and
Given A and B are 2 events where P(A) = , 30 are males. Fifteen of the females wear glasses
3
5 1 while 10 of the males wear glasses. If a member is
P(B) = and P(A  B) = . Find selected at random, what is the probability the
9 6
(a) P(A  B) selected person is a male or is wearing glasses.
(b) P(A  B ' ) Solution
(c) P( A '  B ' )
(d) P( A ' B ' )
Solution

Example 16
Example 14 A and B are two events in the same sample space S.
Probabilities of events C and D are such that If P( A)  0.3 , P( B)  0.8 , and P( A  B)  0.2 ,
1 1 1 find
P(C )  , P( D)  , and P(C  D)  , find
9 3 9 (a) P( A  B)
P(C  D) . (b) P( A )
Solution
(c) P( A  B)
(d) P( A  B )
Solution
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 8
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Example 17 Example 19
An integer is selected randomly from a set of A survey is conducted on a group of workers
integers {1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12}. Find comprising production operators, administrative
the probability that the integer is
officers and security guards. The survey is to
(a) an even number or is divisible by 3
(b) an even number and is not divisible by 3 determine the total working hours in a week.
(c) not an even number and is not divisible by Production Administrative Security
3 operator officer guard
Solution
< 40 hours 63 21 4 88

50 – 70 hours 46 14 10 70

> 70 hours 87 8 17 112

196 43 31

One of the workers in the survey is randomly

selected. Based on the information provided,
calculate the probability

(a) The workers being a production operator.

(b) The workers who work between 50 – 70
hours.
(c) The workers being an administrative officer
Example 18 and working greater than 70 hours.
Records showed that 80% of all Malaysia citizen (d) The workers being a security guard
are smokers. 17% of the citizen have lung cancer, working less than 40 hours.
Solution
with 13% who are smoker and have lung cancer. If
a Malaysia citizen is randomly selected, what is the
probability that the person is smoker or have lung
cancer?

Solution
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 9
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Probability with Permutation & Combination

Example 20
4 letters are chosen randomly from the word
COMPUTER. Find the probability

(a) all the four letters chosen are consonant

(b) the letter C must be chosen
(c) the letters M and P must be chosen
simultaneously

Solution

EXERCISE
Example 21
1. Minah keeps all her scarf on the top shelf
Three red marbles, four yellow marbles and two of her hall closet. On the shelf are 4 blue
green marbles are arranged in one row on a table. scarf, 6 brown scarf and 4 green scarf.
Find the probability Minah reaches up and pulls a scarf out at
random. Find the probability that the scarf
(a) all the four yellow marbles must be next to chosen is
each other a) blue or brown
(b) all the four yellow marbles must not be 5
arranged next to each other Answer :
7
(c) the green marbles must be in the first and b) blue or green
last position of the row
4
Answer :
Solution 11
c) not red
Answer : 1
d) green or red
2
Answer :
7
e) neither blue or green
3
Answer :
7
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 10
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Mutually Exclusive Events Example 24

A ball is drawn from a box containing 7 yellow
Two events are mutually exclusive if they cannot balls, 5 black balls, and 8 green balls. Determine
occur at the same time. This means that A and B the probability that it is
are mutually exclusive, then if A occurs, B cannot
(a) Yellow
occur and if B occurs, A cannot occur. Thus, for
two mutually exclusive events A and B, (b) Black
A  B   , empty set, and (c) red
P( A  B)  0 , and (d) yellow or green
(e) not green
P( A  B)  P( A)  P( B)
(f) neither yellow nor green
This is commonly referred to as addition law of
Are events “drawing a yellow ball” and “drawing a
mutually exclusive events.
black ball” mutually exclusive?

In general, if E1 , E2 ,..., En are mutually exclusive

events in the samples space S, then
P( E1  E2  ...  En )  P( E1 )  P( E2 )  ...  P( En )

Example 22
Dermine which events are mutually exclusive and
which are not when a dice is rolled.
(a) Getting 3 and getting 6.
(b) Getting an even number and getting an odd
number.
(c) Getting a number greater than 4 and getting a
number less than 3.
(d) Getting an even number and getting a number
greater than 4.

Example 23
A developer has 3 red houses, 5 green houses, and
6 yellow houses. If a customer randomly selects a
house, find the probability that it will be either a red
or a yellow house.
Solution
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 11
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Example 25 Example 27

One student feels that the probability he will get a The events A, B , C and D are mutually exclusive
1 with P(A) = P(B) = 0.3 and P(C) = P(D) = 0.1
grade D in a statistics course is and the If E and F are events defined by E = A  D and
8
probability that he will fail ( grade worse than D ) is F = B  C , find
1 (a) P(E  F)
. What is the probability he will get a grade
16 (b) P( E  F)
better than D? Solution

Solution

Example 28

The results of the final exam in a college who took

both Biology and Mathematics papers are as
follows:
600 students passed the Biology paper. 300
Example 26 students passed the Mathematics paper.
C and D are two events where P(C) = 0.1, P(D) = 175 students passed both paper.
0.2 and P(C  D) = 0.3. 50 students failed both papers.
(a) Determine whether C and D are two
mutually exclusive events. From the information above, calculate:
(b) Find P(D' ) and P(C 'D' ) . (a) How many of the college students took the
Mathematics and Biology paper?
Solution (b) The probability of a student chosen at
random who passed both paper.
(c) The probability of a student chosen at
random who did not pass in Mathematics.

Solution
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 12
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Example 30
Conditional Probability
A and B are two events such that P(A) = 1/3, P(B)
If A and B are two events in a sample space S, the = 1/4 and P(A U B) = 1/2. Find
conditional probability of A, given that B has (a) P(A  B)
(b) P(A  B’)
occurred is the probability that A occurs, given that
(c) P(B|A)
B has occurred. This conditional probability is (d) P(A| B ' )
denoted by P( A B) . (e) the probability that exactly one of A or B
will occur.
For two events A and B with P( A)  0 and Solution
P( B)  0 , then the probability of A given B is
P( A  B)
P( A B) 
P( B)
P( A  B) 

Similarly,
P( B  A)
P( B A) 
P( A)
P( B  A) 

Example 29
The event A and B are such that
1 1 5
P( A)  , P( B)  and P( A  B)  . Example 31
4 3 12
Find; In a college, 12% of the students are left-handed, 15%
(i) P( A  B) of the students are curly haired and 3% are both
left-handed and curly haired.
(ii) P( B A)
Solution (a) Given that a student curly haired, find the
probability that the student is left-handed.
(b) What is the probability that a left-handed
student also curly haired?

Solution
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 13
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Example 32 Independent Events

Thirty Mathematics professors out of 100 who are Two events A and B are independent when the
examined were found to be overweight (W). Ten of occurrence or non-occurrence of one event has no
them had high blood pressure (H). Only four of the effect on the probability of occurrence of the other
professors who were not overweight had high blood
event.
pressure.
Find the probability that a Mathematics professor
will not have high blood pressure if he is not Therefore, when two events A and B are
overweight. independent, then

Solution PA B   P( A)
PB A  P( B)
And P( A  B)  P( A)  P( B)
Similarly, if events A, B and C are independent,
then
P( A  B  C )  P( A)  P( B)  P(C )
Relationship between mutually exclusive events and
independent events
If A and B are mutually exclusive events when
P( A)  0, P( B)  0 , then P( A B)  0 and
P( B A)  0 .
This is because for mutually exclusive events,
P( A  B)  0 .

Thus,
P ( A B )  P( A) as P( A)  0 . This means that A
and B are not independent. We can conclude if two
events are mutually exclusive, then they are not
independent.
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 14
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Example 33 Example 35
A bag contains 8 black marbles, 5 red marbles and Events R and T are such that P( R)  0.4 ,
6 green marbles. All the marbles are of same sizes. P(T )  0.2 and P[( R  T ' )  ( R'T )]  0.25 .
Two marbles are selected randomly from the bag in
(a) Find P( R  T ) .
succession with replacement. Find probability that
(a) both the marbles are black (b) Determine if R and T are independent.
(b) only one of the marbles picked is black
(c) both the marbles are of the same colours Solution

Solution

Example 36
A Mathematics puzzle is given to three students,
Example 34 Anand, Balqis and Chua. From the past experience,
Three balls are drawn successively from a box known that the probabilities Anand, Balqis and
containing 5 green balls, 3 white balls and 4 blue Chua will get the correct solutions are 0.65, 0.60
balls. Find the probability that they are drawn in the and 0.55 respectively. If three of them attempt to
order green , white and blue if each ball is solve the puzzle without consulting each other, find
(a) replaced the probability that:
(b) Not replaced
(a) the puzzle will be solved correctly by all of
Solution them
(b) only one of them will get the correct solution.

Solution
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 15
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Probability Tree Example 38

A college buys printers from three different
companies F, G and H. The college buys 50% of
the total number of printers from company F, 40%
from Company G and 10% from Company H. The
percentages of defective printers supplied by
Company F, Company G and Company F are
respectively 5 %, 3% and 2%.
(a) If a printer is selected at random, what is
the probability the printer is defective?
(b) If a printer is found to be defective, what is
the probability that it is supplied by
(i) Company F? (ii) Company H?
Solution

Example 37
The probability that Sofea is late for college on any
day is 0.15 and is independent of whether she was
late on the previous day. Find the probability that
she
a) is late on Monday and Tuesday
b) arrives on time on one of these days
c) arrives on time on Tuesday knowing that
she was late on Monday
Solution
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 16
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Example 39 Miscellaneous Examples

Example 40
In a village where Kamal stays the rain falls
randomly two days in a week. Of the total number A computer laboratory has three printers X, Y and
of days that rain, 70% of the days Kamal takes bus Z which print at different speeds. Programs are
routed to the first available printer. The
to school. If it does not rain, Kamal walks to school.
probabilities that a program is routed to printer X,
For every 5 days Kamal walks to school, 3 days Y and Z are 0.45, 0.35 and 0.20 respectively.
Kamal saves the pocket money. For one particular Sometimes, a printer will jam and destroy a printout.
day, find the probability The probability that X, Y and Z will jam are 0.02,
(a) Kamal takes bus to school 0.04 and 0.03 respectively. Adnan’s program is
(b) Kamal saves his pocket money because of destroyed when printer jams. What is the
walking to school probability that
(a) Printer X is involved?
Solution (b) Printer Y is involved?
(c) Printer Z is involved?

Solution
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 17
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Example 41

Three cubes are randomly selected from a box

containing two blue cubes, six black cubes and
twelve yellow cubes. All the cubes are of the same
size. Find the probability that all the cubes selected
are of
(a) the same colours
(b) different colours
Solution

Example 43
A committee is formed to investigate bribery in a
ministry. The committee is picked from nine ACA
staff and four from NGOs. Find the probability that

a) there are exactly two ACA staff and two

from NGO if the committee consists of four
persons.
b) Five persons selected are such that one
ACA staff is the chairman, another is an
ACA staff and the remaining are from
NGO.
Example 42 c) the number of ACA staff is more than the
There are 60 students in a certain college, 27 of number of NGO staff if four persons are
them are taking Mathematics, 20 are taking Biology
and 22 are taking neither Mathematics nor Biology. selected.
Solution
(a) Find the probability that a randomly selected
student takes
i) both Mathematics and Biology.
ii) Mathematics only.

(b) A student is selected at random. Determine

whether the event ‘taking Mathematics’ is
statistically independent of the event ‘taking
Biology’.
Solution
 Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 18
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Example 44 EXERCISES
The following table shows the number of graduates
from three local universities in three major fields 1. A card is chosen at random from a set of
twenty-five cards numbered from 1 to 25.
namely Mathematics, Statistics and Computer
What is the probability that the card chosen
Science. Some of them were selected by a sponsor is a multiple of 4, given that it is greater
to further their studies. than 15?

University Mathematics Statistics Computer 3

Answer :
Science 10
UKM 80 50 30
UPM 50 65 40 2. Three events, A , B and C are such that A
USM 40 70 25 and B are mutually exclusive and P(A)=0.3,
P(C) = 0.4 , P(AB) = 0.5 and P(BC) =
0.54.
a) Calculate the probability that a graduate a) Calculate P(B) and P(BC)
selected is from UKM.
b) What is the probability that a Statistics
graduate selected is from UPM ? Answer : 0.2 , 0.06
c) One graduate is selected from each
university. Find the probability for the three b) Determine whether or not B and C
are independent events
selected graduate to be :
Answer :
(i) all majoring in Mathematics. B and C are not
(ii) all from the same field of major. independent events
Solution
3. A box contains eight milk chocolates and
seven plain chocolates. Aishah chooses a
chocolate at random and eats it. She then
chooses another chocolate.

Find the probability that :

a) the first chocolate is a milk
chocolate
b) the first chocolate is a milk
chocolate and the second is a plain
chocolate
c) the two chocolates are different
( one plain and one milk)

8 4 8
Answer: a) ; b) ; c)
15 15 15