True-False Questions

85. Events A and B are said to be mutually exclusive if their intersection is the empty set.

86. Events A and B are said to be collectively exhaustive if their intersection is the empty set.

87. Events A and B are said to be statistically independent if their intersection is the empty set.

88. Events A and B are said to be statistically independent if their union is the sample space.

89. The intersection of events A and B is given by all basic outcomes common to both A and B.

90. The union of events A and B is given by all basic outcomes common to both A and B.

91. The classical definition of probability is the limit of the proportion of times that event A occurs in a
large number of trials, n.

92. If the odds in favor of an event happening are 1 to 2, then the probability that event A occurs is
0.5.

93. If events A and B are statistically independent, then the probability of their intersection is equal to
the probability of event A times the probability of event B.

94. If events A and B are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive, then the complement of
event A is identical to event B.

95. If the union of events A and B is not the empty set, then the two events are not mutually
exclusive.

96. The complement of the union of two events is the intersection of their complements.

97. The sum of the probabilities of collectively exhaustive events must equal 1.

116. If either event A or event B must occur, they are called mutually exclusive.

117. If P(A) = 0.25 and P(B) = 0.75, then A and B must be collectively exhaustive.

118. If P(A) = 0.35 and P(B) = 0.65, then A and B must be mutually exclusive.

127. The probability that an employee at a company eats lunch at the company cafeteria is 0.32. The
probability that an employee is female is 0.62. The probability than an employee eats lunch at
the employee cafeteria and is female is 0.21. What is the probability that a randomly chosen
employee either eats at the cafeteria or is female?

ANSWER:
Event A: eats in cafeteria, Event B: female.
P(A) = 0.32, P(A  B) = 0.21  P(B | A) = P(A  B) / P(A) = 0.21 / 0.32 = 0.656

QUESTIONS 156 THROUGH 159 ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

A student has access to professor evaluations. Overall, he has enjoyed 70% of all classes he has taken.
He finds that of the courses he has enjoyed, 13% were taught by professors with poor evaluations. 84%
of the courses he has taken were taught by professors with good evaluations.
156. What is the probability that the class was taught by a professor with poor evaluation and that the
student enjoyed the class?

ANSWER:
Event A: Student enjoyed class
Event B: Class taught by professors with good evaluation
Since P(A) = 0.70 and P( B | A) = 0.13
Then, P( B  A) = P( B |A)  P(A) = (0.13)(0.70) = 0.091

157. What is the probability that the class was taught by a professor with good evaluation and that the
student enjoyed the class?

ANSWER:
Since P(A) = P(A  B )  0.70 = P(A  B)+0.091, then, P(A  B) = 0.609.

158. What is the probability that the student enjoyed the class given that it was taught by a professor
with good evaluation?

ANSWER:
P(B) = 0.84
P(A | B) = P(A  B) / P(B) = 0.609/0.84 = 0.725

159. Suppose a student signed up for three courses next semester, all of which are taught by
professors with good evaluation. What is the probability he enjoys all three?

ANSWER:
 P  A | B     0.725   0.381
3 3

160. In a recent article it was reported that 27.3% of all college students party during weekdays, and
67% of these students plan on going to graduate school. What is the probability that a randomly-
selected student party during weekdays and plans on going to graduate school?

ANSWER:
A: Party during weekdays
B: Going to graduate school
P(A) = 0.273, P(B | A) = 0.67
P(A  B) = P(B | A)  P(A) = (0.67) (0.273) = 0.1829

QUESTIONS 161 THROUGH 164 ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

A recent marketing survey tried to relate a consumer’s awareness of a new marketing campaign with their
rating of the product. Consumers rated their awareness as low, medium, or high, and rated the product
as poor, fair, or good. The results are presented below.

Awareness
Low Medium High
Poor 0.10 0.15 0.07
Ratin Fair 0.06 0.11 0.06
g
Good 0.07 0.11 0.27
161. What is the probability that a consumer had both high awareness and thought the product was
poor?

ANSWER:
 0.07

162. What is the probability that a consumer who had medium awareness ranked the product as fair or
good?

ANSWER:
(0.11 + 0.11) / (0.15 + 0.11 + 0.11) = 0.22 / 0.37 = 0.595

163. What is the probability that a consumer who did not rank the product as poor had high
awareness?

ANSWER:
(0.06 + 0.27) / (1 – 0.10 – 0.15 – 0.07) = 0.33 / 0.68 = 0.485

164. You can order a new model of a electronic notebook in one of five colors. The notebook also
comes loaded with one of four different games. How many different combinations of colors and
games are possible? If you were to order three different notebooks without stating preference on
color or games, what is the probability that they are identical? Assume that the color and game
on one notebook is independent of any others.

ANSWER:
There would be (5)(4) =20 possible models. If you choose three different notebooks, the
probability the first and the second match is 1/20. The probability the third also matches is
1/20*1/20 = 1/400

QUESTIONS 260 THROUGH 264 ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

A general contractor has submitted two bids for two projects; A and B. The probability of getting project A
is 0.60. The probability of getting project B is 0.75. The probability of getting at least one of the projects
is 0.85.

260. What is the probability that the contractor will get both projects?

ANSWER:
P(A) = 0.60, P(B) = 0.75, and P(A  B) = 0.85
P(A  B) = P(A) + P(B) – P(A  B) implies that 0.85 = 0.60 + 0.75 - P(A  B)
Hence, P(A  B) = 0.50

261. Are the events of getting the two projects mutually exclusive? Explain using probabilities.

ANSWER:
Since P(A  B) = 0.50  0, the two events are not mutually exclusive.

262. Are the events of getting the two projects independent? Explain using probabilities.

ANSWER:
Since P(A)  P(B) = (0.60)(0.75) = 0.45  P(A  B) = 0.50, the events of getting the two projects
are not independent,

263. If the contractor gets project A, what is the probability that he will get project B?
ANSWER:
P( B | A)  P ( A  B ) / P( A) = 0.50 / 0.60 = 0.833
264. If the contractor gets project A, what is the probability that he will get project B?

ANSWER:
P( A | B)  P ( A  B ) / P( B ) = 0.50 / 0.75 = 0.667