COUNTING

SAMPLE SPACE
MODULE OBJECTIVE
At the end of this module, students must be able to:
1) define sample space and differentiate discrete from continuous
sample spaces.
2) understand the terms union, complement, difference and
intersection of events;
3) calculate permutation and combination of sample spaces.
SAMPLE SPACE
The set of all possible outcomes of a statistical experiment is called the
sample space and is represented by the symbol .

Example 1
List the elements of each of the following sample spaces:
a) The set of integers between 1 and 50 divisible by 8;
b) The set ;
c) The set
Solution:
a) The set of integers between 1 and 50 divisible by 8;

b) The set ;

or

c) The set

and
or
EVENTS
An event is a subset of a sample space.

The complement of an event with respect to is the subset of all

elements of that are not in . We denote the complement of by the
symbol .

The intersection of two events and , denoted by the symbol , is the

event containing all elements that are common to and .

The union of two events and , denoted by the symbol , is the event
containing all elements that belong to or or both
 The difference of two events and , denoted by the symbol , is the
event containing all elements in but not in .

Two events and are mutually exclusive, or disjoint, if , that is, if and
have no elements in common.

VENN DIAGRAM
The relationship between events and the corresponding sample space can
be illustrated by means of Venn diagram. In Venn diagram, we let the
sample space be a rectangle and represent events by circles drawn inside
the rectangle.
Example 2
Consider the sample space and the events
,
,

List the elements of the sets corresponding to the following

events:

a) A’
b) (;
c) (
Solution:
}
}

a) }
}

c) }
Example 3
If , , and , find

a) ;

b)

Solution:

a)
b) =
Example 4
Suppose that a family is leaving on a M 4 T
5 7
summer vacation in their camper
and that is the event that they will 1
experience mechanical problems, is 2 3
the event that they will receive a 8
ticket for committing a traffic 6
V
violation, and is the event that they
will arrive at a campsite with no a) region 5;
vacancies. Referring to the Venn b) region 3;
diagram to the right, state in words c) regions 1 and 2 together;
the events represented by the d) regions 4 and 7 together;
following regions: e) regions 3, 6, 7, and 8 together.
Solution:

a) Region 5 – The family will experience mechanical problems but

will receive no ticket for a traffic violation and will not arrive at
a campsite that has no vacancies.
b) Region 3 – The family will receive traffic ticket and arrive at a
campsite that has no vacancies but will not experience
mechanical problems.
c) Regions 1 and 2 – The family will experience mechanical
problems and will arrive at campsite that has no vacancies.
d) Regions 4 and 7 – The family will receive a traffic ticket but will
not arrive at campsite that has no vacancies.
e) Regions 3, 6, 7, and 8 – The family will not experience
mechanical problems.
COUNTING SAMPLE POINTS

Rule 1
If an operation can be performed in ways, and if for each of these
ways a second operation can be performed in ways, then the two
operations can be performed together in ways

Rule 2 - Permutation
A permutation is an arrangement of all or part of a set of objects.
PERMUTATION
1) The number of permutations of objects is
2) The number of permutations of objects taken at a time is
nPr =
3) The number of permutations of objects arranged in a circle is
4) The number of permutations of things of which are of one
kind, of a second kind,…, of a kind is
Rule 3 – Combination
The number of combinations of objects taken at a time is
nCr = =

Example 5
In how many different ways can a true-false test consisting of 9
questions be answered?
Example 6
A witness to a hit and run accident told the police that the license
number contained the letters RLH followed by 3 digits, the first of
which was a 5. If the witness cannot recall the last 2 digits, but is
certain that all 3 digits are different, find the maximum number of
automobile registrations that the police may have to check.
Example 7
a) In how many ways can 6 people be lined up to get on a bus?
b) If 3 specific persons, among 6, insist on following each other,
how many ways are possible?
c) If 2 specific persons, among 6, refuse to follow each other, how
many ways are possible?
Example 8
If a multiple-choice test consists of 5 questions, each with 4
possible answers of which only 1 is correct,
a) in how many ways can a student check off one answer to
each question?
b) in how many ways can a student check off one answer to
each question and get all the answers wrong?
Example 9
In how many ways can 4 boys and 5 girls sit in a row if the girls and
boys must alternate?
Example 10
a) How many three-digit numbers can be formed from the digits 0,
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 if each digit can be used only once?
b) How many of these are odd?
c) How many are greater than 330?

Example 11
From 4 red, 5 green, and 6 yellow, how many selections of 9 apples
are possible if 3 of each color are to be selected?
Example 12
From a group of 4 men and 5 women, how many committees of size
3 are possible
a) with no restrictions?
b) with 1 man and 2 women?
c) with 2 men and 1 woman if a certain man must be on the
committee?

Example 13
Nine people are going on a skiing trip in 3 cars that hold 2, 4, and 5
passengers, respectively. How many ways is it possible to transport
the 9 people to the ski lodge using all cars?
PROBABILITY
MODULE OBJECTIVE
At the end of this module, students must be able to:
1) define probability;
2) describe the classical, empirical, and subjective to approaches to
probability;
3) understand the terms experiment, event, and outcome;
4) define the terms conditional probability and joint probability;
5) calculate probabilities using the rules of addition and rules of
multiplication; and
6) Calculate a probability using Bayes’ theorem.
PROBABILITY
The probability of an event A is the sum of the weights of all sample points
in A. Therefore,
, , and ,
Furthermore, if , , , … is a sequence of mutually exclusive events, then
.

Example 1
A die is loaded in such a way that an even number is twice as likely
to occur as an odd number. If E is the event that a number less than
4 occurs on single toss of the die, find P(E).
If an experiment can result in any one of N differently equally likely
outcomes, and if exactly n of these outcomes correspond to event A, then
the probability of event A is
n
P(A) = N

Example 2
A statistics class for engineering consists of 25 industrial, 10,
mechanical, 10 electrical, and 8 civil engineering students. If a
person is randomly selected by the instructor to answer a question,
find the probability that the student chosen is (a) an industrial
engineering major and (b) a civil engineering or an electrical
engineering major.
Example 3
On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia exploded. This
was the second disaster in 113 space missions for NASA. On the
basis of this information, what is the probability that a future
mission is successfully completed?

RULES OF ADDITION
To apply the special rule of addition, the events must be mutually
exclusive.
Example 4
An automatic Shaw machine plastic bags with a mixture of beans
broccoli, and other vegetables. Most of the bags contain the correct
weight, but because of the variation in the size of the beans and other
vegetables, a package might be underweight or overweight. A check
of 4,000 packages filled in the past month revealed:
Weight Event Number of packages Probability of
Occurrence
Underweight A 100 .025
Satisfactory B 3,600 .900
Overweight C 300 .075

What is the probability that a particular package will be either

underweight or overweight?
GENERAL RULE OF ADDITION
For the expression P(A or B), the word or suggest that A may occur
or B may occur. This is also includes the possibility that A and B
may occur.

Example 5
What is the probability of getting a total of 7 or 11 when a pair of fair dice
is tossed?
Example 6
Find the errors in each of the following statements:
a) The probabilities that an automobile sales person will sell 0, 1,
2, or 3 cars on any given day in February are, respectively, 0.19,
0.38, 0.29, and 0.15.
b) The probability that it will rain tomorrow is 0.40, and the
probability that it will not rain tomorrow is 0.52.
c) The probabilities that a printer will make 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 or more
mistakes in setting a document are, respectively, 0.19, 0.34,
0.25, 0.43, and 0.29.
d) On a single draw from a deck of playing cards, the probability of
selecting a heart is 1/4, the probability of selecting a black card
is 1/2, and the probability of selecting both a heart and a black
card is 1/8.
Example 7
Suppose that in a senior college class of 500 students it is found that
210 smoke, 258 drink alcoholic beverages, 216 eat between meals,
122 smoke and drink alcoholic beverages, 83 eat between meals and
drink alcoholic beverages, 97 smoke and eat between meals, and 52
engage in all three of these bad health practices. If a member of the
class is selected at random, find the probability that the student
a) smokes but does not drink alcoholic beverages;
b) eats between meals and drinks alcoholic beverages but does
not smoke;
c) neither smokes nor eats between meals.
Example 8
The probability that an American industry will locate in Shanghai,
China is 0.7, the probability that it will locate in Beijing, China, is 0.4,
and the probability that it locate in either Shanghai or Beijing or both
is 0.8. What is the probability that the industry will locate
a) in both cities?
b) in neither city?

Example 9
If 3 books are picked at random from a shelf containing 5 novels, 3
books of poems, and a dictionary, what is the probability that
a) the dictionary is selected?
b) 2 novels and 1 book of poems are selected?
Example 10
A fair die is rolled until a 4 appears. What is the probability that this
die must be rolled more than 10 times?

Example 11
Three dice are thrown. What is the probability that the same number
appears on exactly two of the dice?
CONDITIONAL PROBABILITY
The probability of an event B occurring when it is known that some
event A has occurred is called conditional probability and is denoted
by P(B|A)

P(A∩𝐵)
, provided
P(A)

Two events A and B are independent if and only if

or
Assuming the existences of the conditional probabilities. Otherwise, A
and B are dependent.
The PRODUCT or the MULTIPLICATIVE RULE
If in an experiment the events A and B can both occur, then
, provided

Example 12
One bag contains 4 white balls and 3 black balls, and a second bag
contains 3 white balls and 5 black balls. One ball is drawn from the
first bag and placed unseen in the second bag. What is probability that
a ball now drawn from the second bag is black?
Rule 3 – Combination
The number of combinations of objects taken at a time is
nCr = =

Example 5
In how many different ways can a true-false test consisting of 9
questions be answered?

number of ways = ways

Example 6
A witness to a hit and run accident told the police that the license
number contained the letters RLH followed by 3 digits, the first of
which was a 5. If the witness cannot recall the last 2 digits, but is
certain that all 3 digits are different, find the maximum number of
automobile registrations that the police may have to check.

9!
number of ways = 9P2 = = 72 automobile registrations
7!
Example 7
a) In how many ways can 6 people be lined up to get on a bus?
b) If 3 specific persons, among 6, insist on following each other,
how many ways are possible?
c) If 2 specific persons, among 6, refuse to follow each other, how
many ways are possible?

a) number of ways = 6P6 = 6! = 720 ways

b) number of ways = 4P4 3P3 = 4! 3! = 144 ways
c) number of ways = 6P6 – 5P5 2P2
= 480 ways
Example 8
If a multiple-choice test consists of 5 questions, each with 4
possible answers of which only 1 is correct,
a) in how many ways can a student check off one answer to
each question?
b) in how many ways can a student check off one answer to
each question and get all the answers wrong?

a) number of ways = 1024 ways

b) number of ways = 243 ways
Example 9
In how many ways can 4 boys and 5 girls sit in a row if the girls and
boys must alternate?

number of ways = 5P5 4P4 = 5! 4! = 2880 ways

Example 10
a) How many three-digit numbers can be formed from the digits 0,
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 if each digit can be used only once?
b) How many of these are odd?
c) How many are greater than 330?

Example 11
From 4 red, 5 green, and 6 yellow, how many selections of 9 apples
are possible if 3 of each color are to be selected?