Probability /MTH301B Tutorial Sheet II

Department: BENG Level2

Combinatory Analysis

Course Instructor: Tar Joel

1. A fair die is thrown. What is the probability that it shows each of

these?
(i) Event A: an even number
(ii) Event B: a number greater than 4
(iii) Either A or B (or both): a number which is either even or greater
than 4
2. Some friends buy a six-pack of potato crisps. Two of the bags are
snake flavoured (S), the rest are frog flavoured (F ). They decide to
allocate the bags by lucky dip. Find the probability that
(i) the first two bags chosen are the same as each other
(ii) the first two bags chosen are different from each other.
3. A committee of 5 persons is to be selected randomly from a group of 5
men and 10women.
(a) Find the probability that the committee consists of 2 men and 3
women.
(b) Find the probability that the committee consists of all women.
4. Suppose that a laboratory test to detect a certain disease has the
following statistics. Let
A = event that the tested person has the disease
B = event that the test result is positive
It is known that P(B / A) = 0.99 and P(B /A) = 0.005 and 0.1 percent
of the population actually has the disease. What is the probability that
a person has the disease given that the test result is positive?
5. Let A and B be events in a sample space S. Show that if A and B are
independent, then so are
(a) 𝐴̅ and B,

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 (b) A and𝐵
̅ , and

(c) 𝐴̅ and 𝐵
̅ ,.

6. The probability of a pregnant woman giving birth to a girl is about

0.49. Draw a tree diagram showing the possible outcomes if she has
two babies (not twins).
From the tree diagram, calculate the following probabilities:
(i) that the babies are both girls
(ii) that the babies are the same sex
(iii) that the second baby is of different sex to the first.
7. Two dice are thrown. The scores on the dice are added.

(i) Copy and complete this table showing all the possible outcomes.
(ii) What is the probability of a score of 4?
(iii) What is the most likely outcome?
8. Rebecca is buying two goldfish from a pet shop. The shop’s tank
contains seven male fish and eight female fish but they all look the
same. Find the probability that Rebecca’s fish are
(i) both the same sex
(ii) both female
(iii) both female given that they are the same sex.
9. A and B are two events with probabilities given by P(A) = 0.4, P(B) =
0.7 and P(A ∩ B) = 0.35.

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 (i) Find P(A/B) and P(B/A).
(ii) Show that the events A and B are not independent.
10. Data about employment for males and females in a small rural area
are shown in the table

Unemployed Employed
Male 206 412
Female 358 305
A person from this area is chosen at random. Let M be the event that
the person is male and let E be the event that the person is employed.
(i) Find P(M).
(ii) Find P(M and E).
(iii) Are M and E independent events? Justify your answer.
(iv) Given that the person chosen is unemployed, find the probability
that the person is female.
11. The probability that Henk goes swimming on any day is 0.2. On a day
when he goes swimming, the probability that Henk has burgers for
supper is 0.75. On a day when he does not go swimming, the
probability that he has burgers for supper is x. This information is
shown on the following tree diagram.

The probability that Henk has burgers for supper on any day is 0.5.
(i) Find x.

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 (ii) Given that Henk has burgers for supper, find the probability that he
went swimming that day.
12. A company is worried about the high turnover of its employees and
decides to investigate whether they are more likely to stay if they are
given training. On 1st January one year the company employed 256
people (excluding those about to retire). During that year a record was
kept of who received training as well as who
left the company. The results are summarised in this table.
Still Employed Left Company Total
Given training 109 43 152
Not given
60 44 104
training
Totals 169 87 256

(i) Find the probability that a randomly selected employee

(a) received training
(b) received training and did not leave the company.
(ii) Are the events T and S independent?
(iii) Find the probability that a randomly selected employee
(a) did not leave the company, given that the person had received
training
(b) did not leave the company, given that the person had not
received training.

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