CHAPTER 13: PROBABILITY (ANSWER KEY)

Sample Test

Part I: Multiple Choice Questions (20 points)

1. What is the probability of an event that is certain to happen?

A. 0
B. 0.5
C. 1
D. 100

Answer: C

2. What is the probability of an impossible event?

A. 0
B. 0.5
C. 1
D. -1

Answer: A

3. The probability of an event E, denoted as P(E), always satisfies which of the following
inequalities?

A. 0 < P(E) < 1

B. 0 ≤ P(E) ≤ 1
C. P(E) ≥ 1
D. -1 ≤ P(E) ≤ 1

Answer: B

4. If the probability of an event occurring is 0.3, what is the probability of the event NOT
occurring?

A. 0
B. 0.3
C. 0.7
D. 1.3

Answer: C
5. What is the sample space of an experiment?

A. The probability of the most likely outcome

B. The set of all possible outcomes
C. The number of favorable outcomes
D. An event that cannot happen

Answer: B

6. If a fair 6-sided die is rolled, what is the probability of rolling a 4?

A. 1/4
B. 1/6
C. 4/6
D. 0.4

Answer: B

7. A bag contains 3 red, 5 blue, and 2 green marbles. What is the probability of drawing a blue
marble?

A. 1/5
B. 3/10
C. 1/2
D. 5/8

Answer: C

8. A coin is tossed twice. How many possible outcomes are there in the sample space?

A. 2
B. 3
C. 4
D. 8

Answer: C
9. If you roll a fair 6-sided die, what is the probability of rolling a prime number?

A. 1/3
B. 1/2
C. 2/3
D. 1/6

Answer: B

10. What does it mean for outcomes to be 'equally likely'?

A. They have the same probability of occurring.

B. They are certain to happen.
C. They sum to 1.
D. They are impossible.

Answer: A

11. A letter is chosen at random from the word 'PROBABILITY'. What is the probability of
choosing the letter 'B'?

A. 1/11
B. 2/11
C. 1/10
D. 2/10

Answer: B

12. The sum of the probabilities of all mutually exclusive and exhaustive outcomes of an
experiment is:

A. 0
B. 0.5
C. 1
D. Depends on the experiment

Answer: C
13. A spinner is divided into 4 equal sections: Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow. What is the
probability of the spinner NOT landing on Red?

A. 1/4
B. 1/2
C. 3/4
D. 1

Answer: C

14. If two fair 6-sided dice are rolled simultaneously, how many total possible outcomes are there
in the sample space?

A. 6
B. 12
C. 24
D. 36

Answer: D

15. From a standard deck of 52 playing cards, what is the probability of drawing a heart?

A. 1/52
B. 1/13
C. 1/4
D. 1/2

Answer: C

16. An event has a probability of 5/4. Which of the following statements is true?

A. It is a very likely event.

B. It is a certain event.
C. It is an impossible event.
D. This is not a valid probability.

Answer: D
17. In a class of 30 students, 12 are boys. If a student is chosen at random, what is the probability
of choosing a girl?

A. 12/30
B. 18/30
C. 1/2
D. 6/30

Answer: B

18. A jar contains only black and white beads. If the probability of drawing a black bead is p, what
is the probability of drawing a white bead?

A. p
B. 1 - p
C. p - 1
D. 0

Answer: B

19. When constructing a possibility diagram (table) for rolling two 6-sided dice, what does each
cell in the grid represent?

A. A probability
B. A possible outcome
C. An impossible event
D. The sample space

Answer: B

20. If the probability of winning a game is 0.05, which word best describes this event?

A. Certain
B. Likely
C. Unlikely
D. Impossible

Answer: C
 Part II: Short Answer Questions (20 points)

21. Define the term 'sample space'.

Answer: The sample space is the set or list of all possible outcomes of a probability
experiment.

22. If a day of the week is chosen at random, what is the probability that it starts with the letter
'S'?

Answer: There are 2 days starting with 'S' (Saturday, Sunday) out of 7. Probability = 2/7.

23. A bag contains 4 orange and 6 brown jelly beans. A bean is removed at random. What is the
probability that it is orange?

Answer: Probability = Favorable / Total = 4 / (4 + 6) = 4/10 = 2/5.

24. Explain why a probability cannot be negative.

Answer: Probability is the ratio of favorable outcomes to total outcomes. Since you cannot
have a negative number of outcomes, the ratio cannot be less than 0.

25. A number is chosen at random from the integers 1 to 10 inclusive. Find the probability of
choosing a multiple of 3.

Answer: Multiples of 3 are 3, 6, 9 (3 outcomes). Total outcomes = 10. Probability = 3/10.

26. The probability that a new battery is defective is 0.02. What is the probability that it is NOT
defective?

Answer: P(not defective) = 1 - P(defective) = 1 - 0.02 = 0.98.

27. List the sample space for flipping a single fair coin.

Answer: Sample space = {Heads, Tails} or {H, T}.

28. Two fair coins are flipped. What is the probability of getting exactly two Tails?

Answer: Sample space: {HH, HT, TH, TT}. One outcome is exactly two Tails. Probability = 1/4.

29. A jar contains 7 red, 3 green, and 5 blue marbles. What is the probability of drawing a marble
that is NOT green?

Answer: Total = 15. Not green (red + blue) = 7 + 5 = 12. Probability = 12/15 = 4/5.
30. State the formula for calculating the theoretical probability of an event E when all outcomes
are equally likely.

Answer: P(E) = (Number of favorable outcomes for E) / (Total number of possible outcomes).

Part III: Problem Solving (30 points)

31. There are 4 orange and 6 brown jelly beans in a bag. A bean is removed at random from the
bag.
(a) List the possible outcomes for the colour of the jelly bean removed.
(b) Are these two colour outcomes equally likely? Explain your answer.
(c) Find the probability that the bean removed is:
(i) orange
(ii) not brown

Explanation & Steps:

(a) The possible outcomes are {Orange, Brown}.
(b) No, they are not equally likely. There are more brown jelly beans (6) than orange jelly beans
(4), so drawing a brown jelly bean is more likely.
(c)(i) P(orange) = 4 / 10 = 2/5.
(c)(ii) P(not brown) means P(orange). Therefore, P(not brown) = 4 / 10 = 2/5.

32. Two fair 6-sided dice are rolled simultaneously. The numbers on the two dice are added
together.
(a) Construct a possibility diagram (table) to list all the possible sums.
(b) Find the probability that the sum is exactly 8.
(c) Find the probability that the sum is an even number.

Explanation & Steps:

(a) Possibility Diagram:

+ 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

(b) Total outcomes = 36. Outcomes with sum 8 = (2,6), (3,5), (4,4), (5,3), (6,2) → 5 outcomes.
P(Sum 8) = 5/36.
(c) Out of 36 outcomes, exactly half will be even. P(Even sum) = 18/36 = 1/2.
33. Two fair 6-sided dice are rolled. The absolute difference between the two numbers is
recorded.
(a) Construct a table and list all the possible outcomes for the difference.
(b) Find the probability that the difference is 1.
(c) Find the probability that the difference is 0 (i.e., the two numbers are the same).

Explanation & Steps:

(a) Table of Differences:

- 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 0 1 2 3 4 5

2 1 0 1 2 3 4

3 2 1 0 1 2 3

4 3 2 1 0 1 2

5 4 3 2 1 0 1

6 5 4 3 2 1 0

(b) Total outcomes = 36. Count the 1s in the table: there are 10 of them. P(Difference is 1) =
10/36 = 5/18.
(c) The difference is 0 along the main diagonal (1,1), (2,2), etc. There are 6 outcomes.
P(Difference is 0) = 6/36 = 1/6.

34. Four cards numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4 are placed face down. Two cards are drawn at random,
one after the other, without replacement. The two numbers are added together.
(a) Draw a possibility diagram to show the possible sums.
(b) Why are the spaces on the main diagonal empty?
(c) Find the probability that the sum of the two cards is an odd number.

Explanation & Steps:

(a) Possibility Diagram (Without Replacement):

+ 1 2 3 4

1 X 3 4 5

2 3 X 5 6

3 4 5 X 7

4 5 6 7 X

(b) The main diagonal is empty because a card is not replaced once drawn. You cannot draw
the same card (e.g., a '1' and another '1') twice.
(c) Total possible outcomes = 12 (4 × 3). The odd sums are 3, 5, 3, 5, 5, 7, 5, 7 (count is 8).
P(Sum is odd) = 8/12 = 2/3.
35. A fair coin is tossed and a fair spinner with 3 equal sectors labelled A, B, and C is spun.
(a) Draw a possibility diagram (or tree diagram) to show all the possible outcomes.
(b) State the total number of outcomes.
(c) Find the probability of getting a Head and the letter C.

Explanation & Steps:

(a) Possibility Diagram:

A B C

Head (H) (H, A) (H, B) (H, C)

Tail (T) (T, A) (T, B) (T, C)

(b) Total number of outcomes = 2 (coin) × 3 (spinner) = 6.

(c) Only 1 outcome is (H, C). Probability = 1/6.