Three board members for a nonprofit organization will be selected from a group of five

people. The board members will be selected by drawing names from a hat. The names of
the five possible board members are Allison, Bob, Charlie, Dave, and Emily. The possible
outcomes can be represented as follows.
ABC ABD ABE ACD ACE
ADE BCD BCE BDE CDE
Here, for example, ABC represents the outcome that Allison, Bob, and Charlie are selected
to be on the board. For the following events, list outcomes and then calculate the probabilities.
1. The event A is that the Bob and Dave are both selected.
2. The event B is that neither Bob nor Dave are selected.
3. The event C is that event A or event B occur.

1. Three persons are chosen out of 5. Bob and Dave are secured a seat. We thus choose 1 person

3
1

out of the remaining 3. This may be done in = 3 ways.

3

1
3
The probability of such an event occurring is 0.3. (
)
5 10

3
Outcomes: ABD, CBD, EBD
2. Event: none of Bob and Dave is selected.

3

3
1
Number of combination (i.e. out of Allison, Charlie and Emily) =
0.1
5 10

3
Outcomes: ACE
3. Events A and B are mutually exclusive (i.e. Bob and Dave cant be both selected while none of
them is selected !!!)
P(C) = 0.3 + 0.1 = 0.4
Outcomes: ABD, CBD, EBD, ACE