Chuah. KMNS.

Maths Unit 1
QS025 Chapter 8 Probability

Chapter 8 Probability
Learning Outcomes
8.1 Probability
a) Understand the concept of experiments,
outcomes, sample spaces, events and
random selections.
b) State the basic laws of probability.
c) Find the probability of an event.
d) Determine the probabilities of the
intersection and the union of two events.
e) Determine the conditional probability and
identify independent events.
f) Use of Venn diagrams, tree diagrams and
table of outcomes to solve probability
problems.

An event is a set of outcomes that satisfy certain specific

conditions.
Event Sample space
For example,
A fair coin is tossed.

S {
Now, we set some conditions for event A, B and

C.
A is the event number is greater than 4 .
B is the event the number is odd .
C is the event the number is a prime number .

Experiments, outcomes, sample spaces & events

Lets 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, lets 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}.
Sample space is the set of all possible outcomes of an
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.

H
T

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

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

Let A be an event of getting the sum of two

outcomes are 6.

Let B be an event of getting the sum of two

outcomes is a multiple of 5.

Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 2

QS025 Chapter 8 Probability
Basic Laws of Probability (Classical Probability)
In classical probability, all the outcomes in the
sample space are assumed to be equally likely to
happen.
For example, when a die is rolled, the outcomes can
be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 each with equal probability

Example 3
If a family has six children, find the probability that
all the children are (a) girls, and (b) boys.
Solution

1
.
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

P( A)

n( A)
n( S )

Example 2
A fair die is tossed. The sample space is
S {1,2,3,4,5,6} . If A is the event the number is
greater than 4, B is the event the number is odd,
then C is the event the number is a prime number.
Find the probabilities for events A, B and C .
Solution

Example 4
A five-digit number is to be formed from digits 2, 3,
5, 7 and 9, and repetitions are not allowed.
(a) What is the probability that the number is
an even number?
(b) What is the probability that the number is
an odd number?
(c) What is the probability that the number is
greater than 60000?
Solution

Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 3

QS025 Chapter 8 Probability
Example 5
A bag contains 4 red marbles, 3 green marbles and
5 black marbles. A marble is drawn from a bag.
Find the probability that the marble drawn is
(a) Red
(b) Green or black
(c) White

Example 6
Mazni has a set of seven cards numbered 1 to 7. A
card is drawn randomly from the set of cards. Find
the probability that the number drawn is
(a) 7
(b) not 7
Solution

Solution

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

subset of S.

Basic Laws of Probability

A S
0 n( A) n( S )

1.Complementary Event

0
n( A) n( S )

n( S ) n( S ) n( S )

S
A

A
Let A be the event A does not occur, and S the
sample space. Then

P( A ) 1 P( A)
A is called the complementary of an event A. It
can also be denoted as A' or A c .

P(A) is the probability event A occurs.

P( A ) is the probability event A does not occur.
Lets 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
P( A )

n( A ) n r
r

1 1 P( A)
n( S )
n
n

Therefore, we have

0 P( A) 1
Example 7
In a sample of 40 female students, 18 had type O
blood, 14 had type A blood, 6 had type B blood and
2 had type AB blood. A student is randomly
selected. Find the probability that the student
selected had
(a) type O blood
(b) type A blood
(c) neither of type O nor type A
Solution

Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 4

QS025 Chapter 8 Probability
Venn Diagram
In a certain class, there are 30 students who
represent the school in at least one sport. Among
them, 20 students are in the school hockey team and
24 students are in the school football team. How
many students in the class represent the school in
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

Example 11
Three unbiased coins are tossed simultaneously.
Find the probability of getting
(a) exactly two heads
(b) at least two heads
(c) at most one head
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
Basic Law of Probability (Continuous)

EXERCISES
1. On a single toss of one die, find the
probability of obtaining
a) a number 4
Answer:

1
6

Answer:

1
2

b) an odd number

c) an even number
Answer:

1
2

d) a number less than 4

Answer:

1
2

e) a number greater than 4

Answer:

3. Additive Rule of Probability

Let A and B be two events. The probability of the
union of two events A and B is the sum of the
probability of event A and B. This can be expressed
as

P( A B) P( A) P( B) P( A B)
Where

A B means the event that A occurs or B occurs

or both event A and B occur
A B means the event that both events A and B
occur together
Venn Diagram to explain

P( A B) P( A) P( B) P( A B)

1
3

f) an odd or an even number

Answer: 1

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

in both a sports team and the school band.
There are 16 pupils involved in sports
teams and 10 in the school band. Find the
probability that a pupil chosen at random

De Morgan Rule

P( A ' B ') P ( A B ) '

P( A ' B ') P ( A B ) '
Other useful formulae

a) is only in the school band

3
Answer:
28
b) is in either a sports team or the school
band

Answer:

19
28

c) is in neither a sports team nor the

school band

Answer:

19
28

P( A B' ) P( A) P( A B)
P( A' B) P( B) P( A B)
Try to use Venn Diagram to illustrate the formulae above.

Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 7

QS025 Chapter 8 Probability
Example 13
Given A and B are 2 events where P(A) =
P(B) =
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Solution

1
,
3

5
1
and P(A B) = . Find
9
6
P(A B)
P(A B ' )
P( A ' B ' )
P( A ' B ' )

Example 14
Probabilities of events C and D are such that

Example 15
A club consists of 80 members. 50 are females and
30 are males. Fifteen of the females wear glasses
while 10 of the males wear glasses. If a member is
selected at random, what is the probability the
selected person is a male or is wearing glasses.
Solution

Example 16
A and B are two events in the same sample space S.
If P( A) 0.3 , P( B) 0.8 , and P( A B) 0.2 ,

1
1
1
, P( D) , and P(C D) , find
9
3
9
P(C D) .

find
(a) P( A B)

Solution

(c) P( A B)

P(C )

(b) P( A )
(d) P( A B )
Solution

Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 8

QS025 Chapter 8 Probability
Example 17
An integer is selected randomly from a set of
integers {1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12}. Find
the probability that the integer is
(a) an even number or is divisible by 3
(b) an even number and is not divisible by 3
(c) not an even number and is not divisible by
3
Solution

Example 19
A survey is conducted on a group of workers
comprising production operators, administrative
officers and security guards. The survey is to
determine the total working hours in a week.
Production
operator

Administrative
officer

Security
guard

< 40 hours

63

21

88

50 70 hours

46

14

10

70

> 70 hours

87

17

112

196

43

31

One of the workers in the survey is randomly

selected. Based on the information provided,
calculate the probability

Example 18
Records showed that 80% of all Malaysia citizen
are smokers. 17% of the citizen have lung cancer,
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

(a) The workers being a production operator.

(b) The workers who work between 50 70
hours.
(c) The workers being an administrative officer
and working greater than 70 hours.
(d) The workers being a security guard
working less than 40 hours.
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)
(b)
(c)

all the four letters chosen are consonant

the letter C must be chosen
the letters M and P must be chosen
simultaneously

Solution

EXERCISE
Example 21
Three red marbles, four yellow marbles and two
green marbles are arranged in one row on a table.
Find the probability
(a)
(b)
(c)
Solution

all the four yellow marbles must be next to

each other
all the four yellow marbles must not be
arranged next to each other
the green marbles must be in the first and
last position of the row

1. Minah keeps all her scarf on the top shelf

of her hall closet. On the shelf are 4 blue
scarf, 6 brown scarf and 4 green scarf.
Minah reaches up and pulls a scarf out at
random. Find the probability that the scarf
chosen is
a)
blue or brown
Answer :
b)

5
7

blue or green
Answer :

4
11

c)

not red

d)

Answer : 1
green or red
Answer :

e)

2
7

neither blue or green

Answer :

3
7

Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 10

QS025 Chapter 8 Probability
Mutually Exclusive Events
Two events are mutually exclusive if they cannot
occur at the same time. This means that A and B
are mutually exclusive, then if A occurs, B cannot
occur and if B occurs, A cannot occur. Thus, for
two mutually exclusive events A and B,
A B , empty set, and
P( A B) 0 , and

P( A B) P( A) P( B)
This is commonly referred to as addition law of
mutually exclusive events.

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

Example 24
A ball is drawn from a box containing 7 yellow
balls, 5 black balls, and 8 green balls. Determine
the probability that it is
(a) Yellow
(b) Black
(c) red
(d) yellow or green
(e) not green
(f) neither yellow nor green
Are events drawing a yellow ball and drawing a
black ball mutually exclusive?

Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 11

QS025 Chapter 8 Probability
Example 25

Example 27

One student feels that the probability he will get a

grade D in

1
a statistics course is
and the
8

probability that he will fail ( grade worse than D ) is

1
. What is the probability he will get a grade
16
better than D?

The events A, B , C and D are mutually exclusive

with P(A) = P(B) = 0.3 and P(C) = P(D) = 0.1
If E and F are events defined by E = A D and
F = B C , find

(a) P(E F)
(b) P( E F)
Solution

Solution

Example 28

Example 26
C and D are two events where P(C) = 0.1, P(D) =
0.2 and P(C D) = 0.3.
(a)
Determine whether C and D are two
mutually exclusive events.
(b)
Find P(D' ) and P(C 'D' ) .
Solution

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
students passed the Mathematics paper.
175 students passed both paper.
50 students failed both papers.
From the information above, calculate:
(a)
How many of the college students took the
Mathematics and Biology paper?
(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
If A and B are two events in a sample space S, the
conditional probability of A, given that B has
occurred is the probability that A occurs, given that
B has occurred. This conditional probability is
denoted by P( A B) .
For two events A and B with P( A) 0 and

P( B) 0 , then the probability of A given B is

P( A B)

A and B are two events such that P(A) = 1/3, P(B)

= 1/4 and P(A U B) = 1/2. Find
(a)
P(A B)
(b)
P(A B)
(c)
P(B|A)
(d)
P(A| B ' )
(e)
the probability that exactly one of A or B
will occur.
Solution

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) .
4
3
12
Find;
(i)
P( A B)
P( B A)
(ii)
Solution

Example 31
In a college, 12% of the students are left-handed, 15%
of the students are curly haired and 3% are both
left-handed and curly haired.
(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

examined were found to be overweight (W). Ten of
them had high blood pressure (H). Only four of the
professors who were not overweight had high blood
pressure.
Find the probability that a Mathematics professor
will not have high blood pressure if he is not
overweight.

Two events A and B are independent when the

occurrence or non-occurrence of one event has no
effect on the probability of occurrence of the other
event.
Therefore, when two events A and B are
independent, then

PA B P( A)

Solution

PB 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
A bag contains 8 black marbles, 5 red marbles and
6 green marbles. All the marbles are of same sizes.
Two marbles are selected randomly from the bag in
succession with replacement. Find probability that
(a)
both the marbles are black
(b)
only one of the marbles picked is black
(c)
both the marbles are of the same colours

Example 35
Events R and T are such that P( R) 0.4 ,
P(T ) 0.2 and P[( R T ' ) ( R'T )] 0.25 .
(a)
Find P( R T ) .
(b)
Determine if R and T are independent.
Solution

Solution

Example 34
Three balls are drawn successively from a box
containing 5 green balls, 3 white balls and 4 blue
balls. Find the probability that they are drawn in the
order green , white and blue if each ball is
(a) replaced
(b) Not replaced
Solution

Example 36
A Mathematics puzzle is given to three students,
Anand, Balqis and Chua. From the past experience,
known that the probabilities Anand, Balqis and
Chua will get the correct solutions are 0.65, 0.60
and 0.55 respectively. If three of them attempt to
solve the puzzle without consulting each other, find
the probability that:
(a) the puzzle will be solved correctly by all of
them
(b) only one of them will get the correct solution.
Solution

Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 15

QS025 Chapter 8 Probability
Probability Tree

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

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

Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 16

QS025 Chapter 8 Probability
Example 39
In a village where Kamal stays the rain falls
randomly two days in a week. Of the total number
of days that rain, 70% of the days Kamal takes bus
to school. If it does not rain, Kamal walks to school.
For every 5 days Kamal walks to school, 3 days
Kamal saves the pocket money. For one particular
day, find the probability
(a)
Kamal takes bus to school
(b)
Kamal saves his pocket money because of
walking to school
Solution

Miscellaneous Examples
Example 40
A computer laboratory has three printers X, Y and
Z which print at different speeds. Programs are
routed to the first available printer. The
probabilities that a program is routed to printer X,
Y and Z are 0.45, 0.35 and 0.20 respectively.
Sometimes, a printer will jam and destroy a printout.
The probability that X, Y and Z will jam are 0.02,
0.04 and 0.03 respectively. Adnans program is
destroyed when printer jams. What is the
probability that
(a)
Printer X is involved?
(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)

b)

Example 42
There are 60 students in a certain college, 27 of
them are taking Mathematics, 20 are taking Biology
and 22 are taking neither Mathematics nor Biology.
(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

c)

Solution

there are exactly two ACA staff and two

from NGO if the committee consists of four
persons.
Five persons selected are such that one
ACA staff is the chairman, another is an
ACA staff and the remaining are from
NGO.
the number of ACA staff is more than the
number of NGO staff if four persons are
selected.

Chuah. KMNS. Maths Unit 18

QS025 Chapter 8 Probability
Example 44
The following table shows the number of graduates
from three local universities in three major fields
namely Mathematics, Statistics and Computer
Science. Some of them were selected by a sponsor
to further their studies.
University

Mathematics

Statistics

UKM
UPM
USM

80
50
40

50
65
70

a)
b)
c)

Computer
Science
30
40
25

Calculate the probability that a graduate

selected is from UKM.
What is the probability that a Statistics
graduate selected is from UPM ?
One graduate is selected from each
university. Find the probability for the three
selected graduate to be :
(i) all majoring in Mathematics.
(ii) all from the same field of major.

EXERCISES
1. A card is chosen at random from a set of
twenty-five cards numbered from 1 to 25.
What is the probability that the card chosen
is a multiple of 4, given that it is greater
than 15?
Answer :

3
10

2. Three events, A , B and C are such that A

and B are mutually exclusive and P(A)=0.3,
P(C) = 0.4 , P(AB) = 0.5 and P(BC) =
0.54.
a)
Calculate P(B) and P(BC)

Answer : 0.2 , 0.06

b)

Determine whether or not B and C

are independent events
Answer :
B and C are not
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)

Answer: a)

8
4
8
; b)
; c)
15
15
15