Probability Tree Questions
Example:
Question 1
What’s the probability of getting:
a) Orange twice? _____________
b) Seeing different colours? _____________
c) Seeing the same colour twice? _____________
Question 2
The probability of getting Heads on a biased coin is 0.9.
a) Complete the tree diagram.
b) What is the probability of getting Heads twice? __________
c) What is the probability of seeing one each of Heads and Tails?
__________
Question 3
A bag contains the letters of ‘TRANSFORMATION’. I pick two letters from
the bag without replacement.
a) Complete the probability tree.
b) What is the probability of getting two consonants? _____________
c) What is the probability of getting exactly one vowel? _____________
Question 4
There are 3 purple sweets and 7 blue sweets in a bag. I take two sweets
without replacement.
a) Complete the probability tree.
b) What is the probability that I get two sweets of different colours?
_____________
a) What is the probability that I get two sweets of the same colour?
_____________
Question 5 – “The Birthday Paradox”
You wish to find the probability that in a classroom of 30 people, at least
two share the same birthday.
a. It is easier to work out the probability first that no one shares the
same birthday. Presuming a year is 365 days, what is the probability
that the second person in the room doesn’t share a birthday with
the first?
_________________
b. What is the probability that the third person doesn’t share a birthday
with either of the first two?
_________________
c. Hence work out the probability that in the classroom, no one shares
a birthday.
_________________
d. Hence work out the probability that at least two people share a
birthday.
_________________
Question 6
[Nov 2011 NonCalc] Jan has two boxes. There are 6 black and 4 white
counters in box A.
There are 7 black and 3 white counters in box B.
Jan takes at random a counter from box A and puts it in box B.
She then takes at random a counter from box B and puts it in box A.
(a) Complete the probability tree diagram.
(2)
(b) Find the probability that after Jan has put the counter from box B into
box A there will still be 6 black counters and 4 white counters in box A.
.....................................
(4)
Algebraic Trees
In these questions, some quantity or probability will be unknown, but the final probability will be
known. Represent any unknowns as variables and solve as you would have before to get an
equation.
Question 7
A box contains a total of 4 balls; some are purple and the rest pink. A ball is chosen at random,
1
replaced before choosing again. If P ( two purple )= then determine the number of purple balls.
16
___________________
Question 8
A bag contains a total of 10 sweets; some are brown and the rest are grey. A sweet is chosen at
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random and not replaced before choosing another one. If P ( two brown )= then find
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P(two grey) .
____________________
Question 1
[Maclaurin 2011 Q2] I have 44 socks in my drawer, each either red or black. In the dark I randomly
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pick two socks, and the probability that they do not match is . How many of the 44 socks are
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red?
Question 2
[Maclaurin 2013 Q4] Two coins are biased in such a way that, when they are both tossed once:
(i) the probability of getting two heads is the same as the probability of getting two tails;
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(ii) the probability of getting one head and one tail is .
8
For each coin, what is the probability of getting a head?
