Probability

1. 30 adults booked to stay in a hotel.

19 adults booked breakfast
15 adults booked dinner
4 adults did not book breakfast or dinner
Some adults booked breakfast and dinner.

Meihui chooses at random two of the 30 adults.

Work out the probability that these two adults each booked breakfast and dinner.

...........................................................
(Total for question = 4 marks)
(QU19 4MA1/2HR, June 2023)

2. Boris has a bag that only contains red sweets and green sweets.

Boris takes at random 2 sweets from the bag.

The probability that Boris takes exactly 1 red sweet from the bag is

Originally there were 3 red sweets in the bag.

Work out how many green sweets there were originally in the bag.
Show your working clearly.

...........................................................

(Total for question = 5 marks)

(Q23 4MA1/2H, June 2019)

3. A bag contains X counters.

There are only red counters and blue counters in the bag.

There are 4 more blue counters than red counters in the bag.

Finty takes at random 2 counters from the bag.

The probability that Finty takes 2 blue counters from the bag is

Work out the value of X. Show clear algebraic working.

...........................................................

(Total for question = 5 marks)

(Q20 4MA1/2H, Nov 2020)

4. Becky has a biased 6-sided dice.

The table gives information about the probability that, when the dice is thrown, it will land on each
number.

Becky is going to throw the dice 200 times.

Work out an estimate for the number of times that the dice will land on an even number.

...........................................................

(Total for question = 4 marks)

(Q05 4MA1/1H, June 2019)

5. Sophie takes an examination.
If she fails the examination, she will resit.

The probability that Sophie passes the examination on her first attempt is 0.7
If she fails the examination on any attempt, the probability she passes on the next attempt is 0.9

Work out the probability that Sophie takes at most 2 attempts to pass the examination.

...........................................................

(Total for question = 3 marks)

(Q15 4MA1/2H/EAM, Specimen papers )

6. Manuel collected information about the flights that arrived late at an airport last month.

The table gives information about the number of minutes that these flights were late.

(a) On the grid, draw a histogram for this information.

(3)
Manuel selected at random a flight that was late by 25 minutes or less from his results.

(b) Work out an estimate for the probability that this flight was late by 5 minutes or less.

...........................................................
(2)
(Total for question = 5 marks)

(Q14 4MA1/2H, Nov 2021)

7. Jack plays a game with two fair spinners, A and B.

Spinner A can land on the number 2 or 3 or 5 or 7

Spinner B can land on the number 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6

Jack spins both spinners.

He wins the game if one spinner lands on an odd number and the other spinner lands on an even
number.

Jack plays the game twice.

Work out the probability that Jack wins the game both times.

...........................................................

(Total for question = 4 marks)

(QU19 4MA1/1H, June 2018)

8. A bowl contains n pieces of fruit.
Of these, 4 are oranges and the rest are apples.

Two pieces of fruit are going to be taken at random from the bowl.

The probability that the bowl will then contain (n – 6) apples is

Work out the value of n

Show your working clearly.

(Total for question = 6 marks)

(Q20 4MA1/1H, Jan 2019)

9. A box contains 15 counters.

There are 4 red counters, 5 green counters and the rest are yellow counters.

Niklas takes at random a counter from the box and writes down the colour of his counter.
He then puts the counter back into the box.

Sasha then takes at random a counter from the box and writes down the colour of her counter.

Work out the probability that the counters taken by Niklas and Sasha both have the same colour.
 ...........................................................

(Total for question = 3 marks)

(Q16 4MA1/2H, Nov 2021)

10. In a bag, there are only red counters, blue counters, green counters and yellow counters.

The total number of counters in the bag is 80

In the bag
the number of red counters is x + 7
the number of blue counters is x – 11
the number of green counters is 3x
Jude takes at random a counter from the bag.

The probability that he takes a red counter is

Work out the probability that Jude takes a yellow counter.

...........................................................

(Total for question = 4 marks)

(Q06 4MA1/2HR, Jan 2023)

11. Elliot has x counters.

Each counter has one red face and one green face.

Elliot spreads all the counters out on a table and sees that the number of counters showing a red face
is 5

Elliot then picks at random one of the counters and turns the counter over.
He then picks at random a second counter and turns the counter over.

The probability that there are still 5 counters showing a red face is

Work out the value of x Show clear algebraic working.

x = ...........................................................

(Total for question = 5 marks)

(QU24 4MA1/1HR, June 2022)

12. Marcus plays two games of tennis.
For each game, the probability that Marcus wins is 0.35

(a) Complete the probability tree diagram.

(2)
(b) Work out the probability that Marcus wins at least one of the two games of tennis.

(3)

(Total for question = 5 marks)

(Q14 4MA1/2H, Jan 2019)

13. In group C, there are 6 girls and 8 boys.
In group D, there are 3 girls and 7 boys.

A team is made by picking at random one child from group C and one child from group D.

(a) Complete the probability tree diagram.

(2)
(b) Work out the probability that there are two boys in the team.

...........................................................
(2)
After the first team has been picked, a second team is picked.
One child is picked at random from the children left in group C and one child is picked at random from
the children left in group D.

(c) Work out the probability that there are two boys in each of the two teams.

...........................................................
(3)
(Total for question = 7 marks)

(Q13 4MA1/1H, June 2019)

14. Here are 9 cards. Each card has either a number on it or a letter on it.

Tomas is playing a game.

Tomas takes at random one of the cards and keeps it.

Tomas then takes at random another card and keeps it.

(a) Complete the probability tree diagram.

(2)
(b) Work out the probability that each of the two cards has a number on it.

...........................................................
(2)
 (c) Work out the probability that there will be one card with a number on it and one card with a letter
on it.

...........................................................
(3)
(Total for question = 7 marks)

(Q15 4MA1/1H, Jan 2023)

15. There are 7 red counters in a bag.

The rest of the counters in the bag are blue.

There are more blue counters than red counters in the bag.

Two counters are to be taken at random from the bag.

The probability that there will be one counter of each colour is

Work out the total number of counters in the bag before any counters are taken from the bag.
 ...........................................................

(Total for question = 5 marks)

(Q22 4MA1/1H/EAM, Specimen papers )

16. Here is a biased 5-sided spinner.

When the spinner is spun, it can land on red, blue, green, brown or yellow.

The table gives the probabilities that the spinner lands on red or on blue or on green.

When the spinner is spun once, the probability that the spinner lands on brown is 0.06 more than the
probability that the spinner lands on yellow.

Jenine spins the spinner 150 times.

Work out an estimate for the number of times the spinner lands on yellow.

(Total for question = 4 marks)

(Q03 4MA1/1H, Jan 2019)
17. 100 farmers are asked if they have goats (G), sheep (S) or chickens (C) on their farms.

Of these farmers
31 have sheep
53 have chickens
6 have goats, sheep and chickens
11 have sheep and goats
17 have sheep and chickens
18 have goats and chickens
20 do not have any goats, sheep or chickens
(a) Using this information, complete the Venn diagram to show the number of farmers in each
appropriate subset.

(3)
(b) Find
(i) n(G)
...........................................................
(1)
(ii) n([G ∪ S]')
...........................................................
(1)
(iii) n(G' ∩ C)
...........................................................
(1)
One of the farmers who has chickens is chosen at random.

(c) Find the probability that this farmer also has goats.

...........................................................
(2)
(Total for question = 8 marks)
(QU16 4MA1/2H, June 2022)
18. Hector has a bag that contains 12 counters.
There are 7 green counters and 5 red counters in the bag.

Hector takes at random a counter from the bag.

He looks at the counter and puts the counter back into the bag.

Hector then takes at random a second counter from the bag.

He looks at the counter and puts the counter back into the bag.

(a) Complete the probability tree diagram.

(2)
(b) Work out the probability that both counters are red.

...........................................................
(2)
Meghan has a jar containing 15 counters.
There are only blue counters, green counters and red counters in the jar.

Hector is going to take at random one of the counters from his bag of 12 counters.
He will look at the counter and put the counter back into the bag.

Hector is then going to take at random a second counter from his bag.
He will look at the counter and put the counter back into the bag.

Meghan is then going to take at random one of the counters from her jar of counters.
She will look at the counter and put the counter back into the jar.
The probability that the 3 counters each have a different colour is

(c) Work out how many blue counters there are in the jar.

...........................................................
(3)

(Total for question = 7 marks)

(Q13 4MA1/1HR, Jan 2022)