PROBABILITY

1. Bag A contains 4 white and 2 black balls while another bag B contains 3 white and 3 black balls. Two balls
are drawn at random without replacement from one of the bags and found to be one white and one black.
𝟗
Find the probability that the balls were drawn from bag B. Ans:
𝟏𝟕

2. There are three categories of students in a class of 60 students :

A : Very hard working students B : Regular but not so hard working C : Careless and irregular
10 students are in category A, 30 in category B and rest in category C. It is found that probability of students
of category A, unable to get good marks in the final year examination is, 0.002, of category B it is 0.02 and
of category C, this probability is 0.20. A student selected at random was found to be the one who could not
get good marks in the examination. Find the probability that this student is of category C. What values need
𝟐𝟎𝟎
to be developed in students of category C? Ans:
𝟐𝟑𝟏
3.
A fair coin is tossed 8 times, find the probability of
i) exactly 5 heads
ii) at least seven heads
iii) at most seven heads

4. Three cards are drawn successively with replacement from a well shuffled pack of 52 cards. Find the mean
𝟑
and variance of the number of red cards. Ans: 𝟑,
𝟒

5. There are two bags A and B. Bag A contains 3 white and 4 red balls whereas bag B contains 4 white and 3
red balls. Three balls are drawn at random (without replacement) from one of the bags and are found to be
𝟑
two white and one red. Find the probability that these were drawn from bag B. Ans:
𝟓

6. A and B throw a pair of dice in that order alternatively till one of them gets a total of 10 and wins the game.
𝟏𝟐 𝟏𝟏
Find their respective probabilities of winning, if A starts the game. Ans: ,
𝟐𝟑 𝟐𝟑

1
7. A biased die is such that P(4) = and other scores are equally likely. The die is tossed twice. If X is the
10
‘number of fours obtained’, find the variance of X.

8. A, B and C throw a pair of dice in that order alternatively till one of them gets a total of 9 and wins the game.
𝟖𝟏 𝟕𝟐 𝟔𝟒
Find their respective probabilities of winning, if A starts the game. Ans: , ,
𝟐𝟏𝟕 𝟐𝟏𝟕 𝟐𝟏𝟕

9. In a game a man wins Rs 5 for getting a number more than 4 and loses Re 1 otherwise, when a fair die is
thrown. The man decided to throw a die thrice but to quit as and when he gets a number greater than 4. Find
𝟏𝟗
the expected value of the amount he wins/loses. Ans:
𝟗
10.
A committee of 4 students is selected at random from a group consisting of 7 boys and 4 girls. Find the
probability that there are exactly 2 boys in the committee given that at least one girl must be there in the
𝟏𝟐𝟔
committee. Ans:
𝟐𝟗𝟓

11. A couple has 2 children. Find the probability that both are boys, if it is known that
(i) one of them is a boy
𝟏 𝟏
(ii) the older child is a boy Ans: ,
𝟑 𝟐

12. Bag I contains 1 white, 2 black and 3 red balls; Bag II contains 2 white, 1 black and 1 red balls; Bag III
contains 4 white, 3 black and 2 red balls. A bag is chosen at random and two balls are drawn from it with
replacement. They happen to be one white and one red. What is the probability that they came from Bag III.
𝟔𝟒
Ans:
𝟏𝟗𝟗
13. Four bad oranges are accidentally mixed with 16 good ones. Find the probability distribution of the number
of bad oranges when two oranges are drawn at random from this lot. Find the mean and variance of the
𝟐 𝟏𝟒𝟒
distribution. Ans: ,
𝟓 𝟒𝟕𝟓

14. Find the mean, and variance of the number of doublets in three throws of a pair of dice.
𝟏 𝟓 √𝟏𝟓
Ans: , ,
𝟐 𝟏𝟐 𝟔

15. From a set of 100 cards numbered 1 to 100, one card is drawn at random. Find the probability that the
𝟐𝟎 𝟏
number on the card is divisible by 6 or 8, but not by 24. Ans: =
𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝟓

16. Bag A contains 4 black and 6 red balls and bag B contains 7 black and 3 red balls. A die is thrown. If 1 or 2
appears, then bag A is chosen, otherwise bag B. If two balls are drawn at random (without replacement) from
𝟐𝟐
the selected bag, find the probability that one of them being red and another black. Ans:
𝟒𝟓

17. An unbiased coin is tossed 4 times. Find the mean and variance of the number of heads obtained. Ans: 𝟐, 𝟏

18. An unbiased coin is tossed ‘n’ times. Let the random variable X denote the number of times the head occurs.
If P(X =1), P(X = 2) and P(X = 3) are in AP, find the value of n. Ans: 𝐧 = 𝟕 (n cannot be 2)

19. For 6 trials of an experiment, let X be a binomial variate which satisfies the relation 9P(X = 4) = P(X = 2).
𝟏
Find the probability of success. Ans:
𝟒

20. How many times must a fair coin be tossed so that the probability of getting at least one head is more than
80% ? Ans: 𝐧 ≥ 𝟑

21. In a set of 10 coins, 2 coins are with heads on both the sides. A coin is selected at random from this set and
tossed five times. If all the five times, the result was heads, find the probability that the selected coin had
𝟖
heads on both the sides. Ans:
𝟗

22. A man is known to speak truth 3 out of 5 times. He throws a die and reports that it is 4. Find the probability
𝟑
that it is actually a 4. Ans:
𝟏𝟑

23. A die is thrown three times. Events A and B are defined as below :
A : 5 on the first and 6 on the second throw.
B : 3 or 4 on the third throw.
𝟏
Find the probability of B, given that A has already occurred. Ans:
𝟑

24. Consider the experiment of tossing a coin. If the coin shows head, toss it again, but if it shows tail, then
throw a die. Find the conditional probability of the event that the die shows a number greater than 4 given
𝟐
that ‘there is at least one tail’. Ans:
𝟗

25. Out of a group of 30 honest people, 20 always speak truth. Two persons are selected at random from the
group. Find the probability distribution of the no. of persons who speak the truth. Also find the mean of the
distribution. What values are described in this question?

********************************************