Probability of Compound Events

Probability of Compound Events

• A compound event consists of two or more
simple events.
• Examples:
rolling a die and tossing a coin
spinning a spinner and drawing a card
tossing two dice
tossing two coins
• What is the probability of getting a sum of 9?
• What is the probability of getting a sum of 13?
• What is the probability of getting a sum less
than 6?
 Compound Events
• When the outcome of one event does not
affect the outcome of a second event, these
are called independent events.

• The probability of two independent events is

found by multiplying the probability of the
first event by the probability of the second
event.
Compound Event Notations
 Independent Events
Example 1: Suppose you spin each of these two spinners.
What is the probability of spinning an even number and a
vowel? 6
1 S P

2 5
T O

3 4
R

1
P(even) = (3 evens out of 6 outcomes)
2
1
P(vowel) = (1 vowel out of 5 outcomes)
5
1 1 1
P(even, vowel) =  
2 5 10
Slide 6
 Independent Events
2.Find the probability
• P(jack, factor of 12) 4 5 5
x =
52 8 104

Slide 7
 Dependent Event
• What happens during the second event
depends upon what happened before.

• In other words, the result of the second event

will change because of what happened first.

The probability of two dependent events, A and B, is equal to the

probability of event A times the probability of event B. However,
the probability of event B now depends on event A.

P(A, B) = P(A)  P(B)

Slide 8
 Dependent Event
Example 1: There are 6 black pens and 8 blue pens in a jar. If
you take a pen without looking and then take another pen
without replacing the first, what is the probability that you will
get 2 black pens?
6 3
P(black first) = or
14 7
5
P(black second) = (There are 13 pens left and 5 are black)
13

THEREFORE………………………………………………

3 5 15
P(black, black) =  or
7 13 91 Slide 9
Example 2:A box contains 10 cellular phones, 4 are not
functional and the rest are functional. What is the probability
that if 3 cellular phones are drawn at random without
replacement, they will all be functional?

P(f,f,f) = (6/10) (5/9) (4/8) = 1/6

Example 3: A bowl contains 7 white marbles and 7 red marbles.

What is the probability of drawing 2 white marbles and 1 red
marble in succession without replacement?

P (w,w,r) = (7/14) (6/13) (7/12) = 7/52