Probability
What is Probability?
• Probability is a branch of mathematics that
quantifies the likelihood of an event occurring.
• It's a way of dealing with uncertainty and is used
in a wide variety of fields.
• The probability of an event is a number between
0 and 1 (or 0% and 100%).
• A probability of 0 means the event is impossible.
• A probability of 1 means the event is certain.
• A probability of 0.5 means the event has an equal
chance of happening or not happening.
Types of Events
1. Basic Probability
Practice
• What is the probability of drawing a red card from
a standard 52-card deck?
• A bag contains 5 red marbles, 3 blue marbles,
and 2 green marbles. What is the probability of
picking a blue marble at random?
2. Complementary Events
Practice
• The probability of rain tomorrow is 0.3. What is
the probability that it will not rain?
• A large bag of candy contains three different types
of candy: 30% is chocolate, 25% is fruity, and the
rest is mint-flavored. If you randomly pick one
candy from the bag, what is the probability that it
is mint-flavored candy?
3. Mutually Exclusive
Events
Practice
• What is the probability of rolling an odd number
or a 2 on a single six-sided die?
• A card is drawn from a 52-card deck. What is the
probability of drawing a King or a Queen?
4. Non-Mutually Exclusive
Events
Practice
• What is the probability of rolling an even number
or a number less than 4 on a single six-sided die?
• A card is drawn from a 52-card deck. What is the
probability of drawing a heart or a King?
5. Independent Events
Practice
• You flip a coin and roll a six-sided die. What is
the probability of getting tails on the coin and a 5
on the die?
• A jar contains 10 red marbles and 5 blue
marbles. You draw a marble, replace it, and then
draw another marble. What is the probability that
both marbles are red?
6. Conditional Probability
Practice
• A survey shows that 60% of people have a dog,
40% have a cat, and 25% have both. What is the
probability that a person who has a dog also has
a cat?
• A group of 100 students was surveyed. 40
students play a sport, and 15 students play both
a sport and a musical instrument. If a student is
chosen at random from those who play a sport,
what is the probability that they also play a
musical instrument?
Venn Diagrams
• A Venn diagram is a way to illustrate events from
an experiment and are particularly useful when
there is an overlap between possible outcomes
How do I solve probability problems
involving Venn diagrams?
Practice
• 40 people are asked if they have sugar and/or
milk in their coffee. 21 people have sugar, 25
people have milk and 7 people have neither.
• Draw a Venn diagram to represent the information
• One of the 40 people are randomly selected, find the
probability that they have sugar but not milk with their
coffee.
• Given that a person who has sugar is selected at
random, find the probability that they have milk with
their coffee.