PROBABILITY TUTORIALS
1. Three-letter words are generated randomly from the five characters a , b , c , d , e , where
letters can be used at most once.
(a) How many three-letter words are there in the sample space S?
b) How many words containing a, b are there in S?
c) Suppose all the events in the sample space are equally likely. What is the probability of
generating a three-letter word that contains the letters a and b?
2. A fair die is rolled once. What is the probability of landing with
a) 5 up?
b) Even number up?
c) Odd number up?
3. A fair die is rolled twice. What is the probability of
a) Having a 6 up on both rolls?
b) Having at least 8 as the sum of numbers up on both rolls?
c) Not more than 10 as the sum of numbers up on both rolls?
d) Exactly 7 as the sum of numbers up on both rolls?
3. Suppose that four-letter English words of lower case alphabetic characters are generated
randomly with equally likely outcomes. (Assume that letters may appear repeatedly.)
(a) How many four-letter words are there in the sample space S ?
(b) How many four-letter words are there are there in S that start
with the letter “s ” ?
(c) What is the probability of generating a four-letter word that
starts with an “s ” ?
4. a) How many re-orderings (permutations) are there of
the string abc ? (Here letters may appear only once.)
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b) If these permutations are generated randomly with equal probability
then what is the probability the word starts with the letter ”a ” ?
5. A firm is independently working on two separate jobs. There is a probability of only 0.4
that either of the jobs will be finished on time. Find the probability that:
a) both
b) neither
c) Just one
d) at least one of the jobs is finished on time.
6. (a) How many ways are there to choose a committee of 4 persons
from a group of 10 persons, if order is not important?
(b) If each of these 210 outcomes is equally likely then what is the
probability that a particular person is on the committee?
(c) What is the probability that a particular person is not on the
committee?
(d) How many ways are there to choose a committee of 4 persons
from a group of 10 persons, if one is to be the chairperson?
6. Two balls are selected at random from a bag with four white balls and three black balls, where
order is not important.
a) Determine the sample space
b) What is the probability that both balls are white?
c) What is the probability that both balls are black?
d) What is the probability that one is white and one is black?
7. If 5 factories in a group of 25 factories in a certain community are violating
environmental regulations and 7 are randomly elected for inspection, what is the
probability that:
a) none of the violators will be selected for inspection?
b) all of the violators will be selected for inspection?
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8. Explain what you understand by
i) Mutually exclusive events;
ii) Conditional probability;
iii) Independent events.
9. Two cards are drawn simultaneously from the same pack of 52 cards.
Find each of the following probabilities.
a) Both cards are picture cards.
b) Neither of the cards is a picture card.
c) Exactly one of the cards is a picture card.
10. A computer retailer conducts a survey of 250 computer purchasers and obtains the
information in the table below
AGE
Less than 25 25 – 40 41 and over
MALE 70 25 50
FEMALE 45 40 20
If a customer is selected at random, find the following probabilities:
a) the customer is female and aged 25 – 40?
b) The customer is male.
c) If the selected customer is aged less than 25, what is the probability that
they are female?
d) Are the events female and aged 25 – 40 independent?
