GRADE 6

1. A total of 378 babies are weighed when they are born. Of these, 125
babies have a mass of less than 3 kg.
Work out the experimental probability that a baby has a mass of:
a. less than 3 kg
b. at least 3 kg
2. A call centre receives 200 calls. This table shows how long a caller must
wait before speaking to a customer service officer.

Work out the experimental probability that a caller will wait:

a. less than 2 minutes
b. between 2 and 3 minutes
c. at least 3 minutes
3. The heights of 234 young men, aged 20 to 29 years, are measured. Here
are the results.

Work out the experimental probability that the height of a man aged 20
to 29 years is:
a. less than 165 cm
b. 180 cm or less
c. 165 cm or more
4. The lights of 20 cars are tested. The car could pass (P) or fail (F).
Here are the results: PPPPP PPPPF PFPPPP PPPP
a. Work out the experimental probability that a car will:
i. pass
ii. fail
Here are the results for another 20 cars: PPFPP FPPPP PPPPF FPPPP
b. Recalculate the probabilities in part a based on all 40 cars.
c. Why are the second experimental probabilities more reliable?
5. A woman travels to work on a bus each morning. She keeps a record for
30 days. The bus is late nine times.
 a. Work out the experimental probability that the bus will be:
i. late
ii. on time
In the next 25 days the bus is late four times.
b. Use all the results to find the experimental probability that the bus
will be:
i. late
ii. on time
c. The woman predicts that the bus will be late 24 times in the next 100
days. How did she work out this number?
6. A computer simulates spinning three coins 160 times and records the
number of heads. Here are the results.

a. Work out the experimental probability of getting:

i. three heads
ii. three tails
iii. at least two heads
1
A teacher says: The theoretical probability of getting three heads is .’
8
b. How does the theoretical probability compare to the experimental
probability of getting three heads?
c. What can you say about the theoretical and experimental
probabilities for getting zero heads?
7. A computer simulates throwing two dice and adding the scores together.
It does this 100 times. Here are the results.
 a. Work out the experimental probability of getting:
i. 7
ii. more than 7
iii. less than 7
iv. 12
b. Do you think that 100 trials is enough to get reliable results? Give a
reason for your answer.
8. A coin is spun until a head appears. The number of spins is recorded.
This is repeated 100 times. The results are shown in this table.

a. Work out the experimental probability of:

i. getting a head on the first spin
ii. needing exactly three spins until a head appears
iii. needing more than three spins until a head appears
b. Do 100 trials give a good estimate of the experimental probabilities of
needing different number of spins? Explain your answer.
9. Some students are asked if they want to be engineers, lawyers or
accountants. The results are shown in this table.

Find the probability that:

a. a female student wants to be an engineer
b. a male student wants to be a lawyer
c. a female student does not want to be an accountant
ANSWERS:
1. a. 33% b. 67%
2. a. 21.5% b. 33.5% c. 45%
3. a. 12% b. 80% c. 88%
4. a. i. 0.9 ii. 0.1
b. i. 0.85 ii. 0.15
c. They are based on a bigger sample
5. a. i. 30% ii. 70%
b. i. 23.6% ii. 76.4%
c. The woman worked out 23.6% of 100
6. a. i. 8.75% ii. 10.6% iii. 51.25%
1
b. is 12.5%, which is more than the experimental probability of
8
8.75%
c. zero heads is three tails, so the theoretical probability should
1
also be . The experimental probability of 10.6% is closer to 12.5%
8
this time.
7. a. i. 0.17 ii. 0.36 iii. 0.47 iv. 0.02
b. The numbers 2 and 12 do not occur very often, so the
frequencies might be unusual.
8. a. i. 0.48 ii. 0.13 iii. 0.14
b. It is reasonable for 1, 2 and 3, but the larger numbers rarely
occur. The estimate for 7 or 9 is zero. A good estimate for those
numbers of spins needs a larger sample
9. a. 15% b. 17.5% c. 80%