Probability means possibility.

It is a branch of
Term Definition Example
mathematics that deals with the occurrence of a
random event. The value is expressed from zero to one.
the same time
Probability has been introduced in Math to predict
how likely events are to happen.
Probability of an event happening
Probability Terms and Definition =
Some of the important probability terms are discussed Number of wayscan happen
here: Total number of outcomes
Term Definition Example
Notation
Sample Space The set of all 1. Tossing a Let Aand B denote two events.
the possible coin,
outcomes to Sample A∪B is the event that either A or B or both occur. A∩B is
occur in any Space (S) =
the event that both A and B occur simultaneously. The
trial {H,T}
2. Rolling a complement of A is denoted by
A . A is the event that A
c c
die, Sample
does not occur. Note that Pr(
Space (S) = Ac ) = 1− Pr(A)
{1,2,3,4,5,6
Probability Rules
}

Sample Point It is one of the In a deck of Cards:

possible  4 of hearts
results is a sample
point.
 the queen
of clubs is a
sample
point.
Probability Descriptions
A and B are mutually exclusive if both cannot occur at the
Experiment or A series of The tossing of a
same time.
Trial actions where coin, Selecting a
the outcomes card from a deck of
are always cards, throwing a
uncertain. dice. Counting Rules
Event It is a single Getting a Heads
outcome of an while tossing a coin
experiment. is an event.

Outcome Possible result T (tail) is a possible

of a outcome when a
trial/experimen coin is tossed.
t

Complimentar The non- Standard 52-card

y event happening deck, A = Draw a
events. The heart, then A’ = PERMUTATIONS
complement of Don’t draw a heart A permutation is "a re-arrangement of elements of a set".
an event A is So, what does this mean? It means a permutation is ONLY
the event, not interested in re-arranging the elements of the set... Any
A (or A’) duplications of the collected elements in different orders is
fine.
Impossible The event In tossing a coin,
Event cannot happen impossible to get A permutation therefore tends to be a large number.
both head and tail at Example:
Taking the 4 letters, ABCD, write down all the
permutations of 3 of these leters:

ABC BAC CAB DAB

ACB BCA CBA DBA
ABD BAD CAD DAC STATISTICS is a number that can be computed from
ADB BDA CDA DCA the sample data without making use of any unknown
ACD BCD CBD DBC parameters.
ADC BDC CDB DCB

--> there are 24 permutations. In other words, just taking

each letter and collecting them into sets of 3 from the 4
and writing them out, gives 24 variations. Done.

Here, if you like, the order matters, since ABC is different

to ACB and different to BCA and different to CAB etc.
Permutations see these as all different answers.

COMBINATIONS
A combination is "one or more elements selected from a
set without regard to the order"

The "without regard" means that the collection matters

rather than order in combinations, so in the above
example, the fact we ABC, ACB, BAC, BCA, CAB,
CBA... for combinations, these are all 1 combination of
letters A, B and C.

So, questions concerning picking a team of 5 people from

a squad of 11... you would need combinations, since it is
having "Bert, Ernie, Fred, Bill and Bob" that matters, not
the fact that you have so many different permutations of
these 5 people.

Example:
Taking the 4 letters, ABCD, write down all the
combinations of 3 of these leters:
ABC ABD ACD BCD
--> there are just 4 combinations. You cannot pick any
other 3 letters from ABCD, that is not part of the above 4
combinations. It is enlightening to see the letter missing in
each: in order we have "no D", "no C", "no B" and finally
"no A"... this sometimes helps you to "see" all the possible
answers.
Mathematics of Permutations
To find the number of permutations of r elements from a
set of n, the formula is:
Mathematics of Combinations
To find the number of combinations of k elements from a
set of n, the formula is:
Measures of Central Tendency
1. Mean - sum of elements in set divided by number of
elements in set.
2. Median - middle element when arranged in order or
average of two middle elements.
3. Mode - most frequent element(s). If no element
occurs more than once then there is no mode
Example:
Find mean, median & mode of the data in this sample: 6,
15, 24, 23, 29, 22, 21, 29, 29
a. Find the mean: 6+15+24+23+29+22+21+29+29
=198=22
9 9
b. Find the median: Arrange in ascending/descending
order then get the middle number.
6, 15, 21, 22, 23, 24, 29, 29, 29
c. Find the mode: the most frequent number
 6, 15, 21, 22, 23, 24, 29, 29, 29
Measures of Dispersion
In statistics, the measures of dispersion help to interpret
the variability of data i.e. to know how much homogenous
or heterogeneous the data is. In simple terms, it shows
how squeezed or scattered the variable is.
1. Range: It is simply the difference between the
maximum value and the minimum value given in a data
set. Example: 1, 3,5, 6, 7 => Range = 7 -1= 6
2. Variance: Deduct the mean from each data in the set
then squaring each of them and adding each square and
finally dividing them by the total no of values in the data
set is the variance. Variance (σ2)=∑(X−μ)2/N
3. Standard Deviation: The square root of the variance is
known as the standard deviation i.e. S.D. = √σ.
4. Quartiles and Quartile Deviation: The quartiles are
values that divide a list of numbers into quarters. The
quartile deviation is half of the distance between the third
and the first quartile.
5. Mean and Mean Deviation: The average of numbers is
known as the mean and the arithmetic mean of the
absolute deviations of the observations from a measure of
central tendency is known as the mean deviation (also
called mean absolute deviation).
Example Question
Question: Find the Variance and Standard Deviation of the
Following Numbers: 1, 3, 5, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10.
Solution: The mean = (1+ 3+ 5+ 5+ 6+ 7+ 9+ 10)/8
= 46/ 8 = 5.75
Step 1: Subtract the mean value from individual value
(1 – 5.75), (3 – 5.75), (5 – 5.75), (5 – 5.75), (6 – 5.75),
(7 – 5.75), (9 – 5.75), (10 – 5.75)
= -4.75, -2.75, -0.75, -0.75, 0.25, 1.25, 3.25, 4.25
Step 2: Squaring the above values we get, 22.563, 7.563,
0.563, 0.563, 0.063, 1.563, 10.563, 18.063
Step 3: 22.563 + 7.563 + 0.563 + 0.563 + 0.063 + 1.563
+ 10.563 + 18.063 = 61.504
Step 4: n = 8, therefore variance (σ²) = 61.504/ 8 = 7.69
Now, Standard deviation (σ) = 2.77
Measures of Position
1. Percentile divided the area under the curve for
hundred equally pieces of area.
Formula to find Percentile:
percentile= ((number of values ≤ X))/(total number of
values)
Formula to Find Position of a Given Percentile
i= (n∙p)/100
Example: Finding the Percentile of a Value in a Data Set
A teacher gives a 50-point test to 10 students. The scores
are shown below. Find the percentile rank of 36.
18, 36, 45, 40, 30, 38, 48, 27, 39, 25
Step 1: Arrange the data in order from lowest to highest.
Step 2: Substitute in the formula.
percentile= ((number of values ≤ X))/(total number of
values)
Step 3: Calculate the percentile.
Example: Finding the Value the Corresponds to a
Percentile (when i is a decimal)
Using the data from the previous example, find the value
corresponding to the 25th percentile.
Step 1: Arrange the data in order from lowest to highest.
Step 2: Substitute in the formula
i= (n∙p)/100
Step 3: If i is not a whole number, round it up to the next
whole number. (If i is a whole number, see the next
example.) Start at the lowest value and count over to the
ith value. This is the value that corresponds to the 25th
percentile.
Example: Finding the Value the Corresponds to a
Percentile (when i is a decimal)
Using the data from the previous example, find the value
that corresponds to the 60th percentile.
Step 1: Arrange the data in order from smallest to largest.
Step 2: Substitute in the formula
i= (n∙p)/100
Step 3: If i is a whole number, use the value halfway
between the i and the i + 1 value when counting up from
the lowest value.
2. Decile divided the area under the curve for ten equally
pieces of area.
Deciles are denoted by D1, D2, D3, …, D9 and the
correspond to P10, P20, P30, …, P90. Deciles can be
found using the formulas given for percentiles.
3. Quartile divided the area under the curve for four
equally area.

Note: To find Q1, simply calculate the 25th percentile of
the data. To find Q3, simply calculate the 75th percentile
of the data. To find Q2, find the median of the data.
Example: Finding Quartiles
Find Q1, Q2, and Q3 for the data set 10, 2, 9, 15, 23, 30, 8,
17, 25, 28
Step 1: Arrange the data in order.
Step 2: Find the median (Q2).
 Relative cumulative frequency: the result of
dividing the cumulative frequency by the total
number of information, which is represented by Ni
(when we are dealing with cumulative
frequencies, the letters to represent them are in
capital letters).
Example
15 students answer the question of how many brothers or
sisters they have. The answers are:
1,1,2,0,3,2,1,4,2,3,1,0,0,1,2

Step 3: Find the 25th percentile (Q1) and the 75th Then, we can construct a table of frequencies
percentile (Q3) using the formula Relative
i= (n∙p)/100 Absolute Relative
Brother Cumulative cumulative
frequenc frequenc
s frequency Fi frequency
Class width refers to the difference between the upper and y fi y ni
Ni
lower boundaries of any class (category). Depending on 0 3 315 3 315
the author, it’s also sometimes used more specifically to
315+515=81
mean: 1 5 515 3+5=8
5
 The difference between the upper limits of two
consecutive (neighboring) classes, or 2 4 415 3+5+4=12 1215
 The difference between the lower limits of two 3 2 215 3+5+4+2=14 1415
consecutive classes. 3+5+4+2+1=1
4 1 115 1515
Note that these are different than the difference between 5
∑ 15 1
Calculating Class Width in a Frequency Distribution Notice that the difference between the cumulative
Table frequency and the relative frequency is only that in the
In a frequency distribution table, classes must all be the case of the relative we must divide by the total number of
same width. This makes it relatively easy to calculate the data. This can help us avoid unnecessary calculations
class width, as you’re only dealing with a single width (as
opposed to varying widths). To find the width:
1. Calculate the range of the entire data set by subtracting
the lowest point from the highest,
2. Divide it by the number of classes.
3. Round this number up (usually, to the nearest whole
number.the upper and lower limits of a class.

Absolute, relative, cumulative frequency and statistical

tables
The distribution or table of frequencies is a table of the
statistical data with its corresponding frequencies.
 Absolute frequency: number of times that a value
appears. It is represented as fi where the subscript
represents each of the values. The sum of the
absolute frequencies is equal to the total number
of data, represented by N.

 Relative frequency: the result of dividing the

absolute frequency of a certain value by the total
number of data. It is represented as ni. The sum of
the relative frequencies is equal to 1. We can
prove this easily by factorizing N. PROBABILITY AND STATISTICS
Choose the best answer to each question.
 Cumulative frequency: the sum of absolute
frequencies of all the values equal to or less than
the considered value. This is represented as Fi.
1. A glass jar contains 5 red, 3 blue and 2 green VCR. What is the probability that a household has a VCR
jellybeans. If a jellybean is chosen at random from the jar, given that it has a television?
what is the probability that it is not blue? A. 173%
A. 1/2 B. 58%
B. 3/10 C. 42%
C. 7/10 D. 36%
D. 1/5
9. In New England, 84% of the houses have a garage
2. A number from 1 to 5 is chosen at random. What and 65% of the houses have a garage and backyard. What
is the probability that the number chosen is not odd? is the probability that a house has a backyard given that it
A. 2/5 has a garage?
B. 3/5 A. 77%
C. 0 B. 109%
D. 4/5 C. 19%
D. None of the above
3. If a number is chosen at random from the
following list, what is the probability that it is not prime? 10. A spinner has 7 equal sectors number 1 to 7. If
2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19 you spin the spinner, then which of the following is a
A. 1 certain event?
B. 1/8 A. Landing on a number less than 7
C. 0 B. Landing on a number less than 8
D. 2 C. Landing on a number greater than 1
D. None of the above
4. What is the probability of choosing a vowel from
the alphabet? 11. Find the range of these distances run by 6
A. 21/26 marathon runners: 10 km, 15 km, 12 km, 14 km, 8 km, 16
B. 5/26 km
C. 1/26 A. 8 km
D. 5/13 B. 6 km
C. 11 km
5. Spin a spinner numbered 1 to 7, and toss a coin. D. 17 km
What is the probability of getting an odd number on the
spinner and a tail on the coin? 12. Employees at a retail store are paid the hourly
A. 3/14 wages listed below. What is the range of these hourly
B. 2/7 wages? $7.50, $9.25, $8.75, $9.50, $7.25, $8.50
C. 5/14 A. $7.50
D. None of the above B. $3.75
C. $2.25
6. Four cards are chosen from a standard deck of 52 D. $1.75
playing cards with replacement. What is the probability of
choosing 4 hearts in a row? 13. The test scores of 9 seventh grade students are
A. 13/52 listed below. Find the mode. 82, 92, 75, 91, 92, 89, 95,
B. 1/16 100, 86
C. 1/256 A. 77
D. None of the above B. 92
C. 95
7. A nationwide survey showed that 65% of all D. 86
children in the United States dislike eating vegetables. If
4 children are chosen at random, what is the probability 14. The manager of video shop recorded the number
that all 4 dislike eating vegetables? (Round your answer of blank tapes sold per day in 2 weeks (below). Which of
to the nearest percent) the following statements is true? 132, 121, 119, 116, 130,
A. 18% 121, 131, 117, 119, 135, 121, 129, 119, 134
B. 260% A. There is no mode.
C. 2% B. The mode is 119
D. None of the above C. The mode is 131
D. The modes are 119 and 121
8. In Europe, 88% of all households have a
television. 51% of all households have a television and a
15. Ten earthquakes were measured using the Richter Answer Key
scale and their magnitudes are listed below. Which of the
following statements is true? 7.0, 6.2, 7.7, 8.0, 6.4, 7.2, 1. C
5.4, 6.6, 7.5, 5.9 2. A
A. There is no mode’ 3. C
B. The mode is 6.4 4. B
C. The mode is 5.4 5. B
D. The data set is bimodal 6. C
7. A
16. A small company has limited budget for salaries. 8. B
It can afford to pay an average of $35,000 a year to its 9. A
employees. If the first 5 employees are paid $37,000, 10. B
$38,000, $33,000, $39,000 and $29,000, then how much 11. A
money can they pay the sixth employee without exceeding 12. C
their budget? 13. B
A. $38,000 14. D
B. $36,000 15. A
C. $34,000 16. C
D. $35,000 17. A
18. C
17. In problem 16, what would the mean salary be if 19. A
the sixth was paid $40,000? 20. C
A. $36,000
B. $40,000
C. $37,000
D. $42,000

18. The mean of 5 hourly wages is $5.95. What is the

sum of these wages?
A. $41.00
B. $35.00
C. $29.75
D. $32.50

19. Find the range of these race times given in

seconds: 7.3s, 8.4s, 8.0s, 7.5s, 9.4s, 8.7s, 9.1s
A. 2.1 s.
B. 3.0 s.
C. 7.0 s.
D. 1.2 s.

20. The mean of a set of numbers is 123. The sum of

the numbers is 2,214. How many numbers are in the set?
A. 12
B. 16
C. 18
D. 20