Math/Stat 3379 – Spring 2025

Chapter 4 – Elementary Probability Theory

– Practice Worksheet

Section 4.1
Practice 1
According to a survey by Nickelodeon TV, 88% of children under 13 in Germany recognized
a picture of the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants. What is the probability that a
randomly chosen German child recognizes SpongeBob?

Practice 2
A coin flip: A fair coin is tossed three times. The outcomes of the three tosses are recorded.

1. List all outcomes in the sample space.

2. Assuming the outcomes to be equally likely, find the probability that all three tosses
are ”Heads.”

3. Assuming the outcomes to be equally likely, find the probability that the tosses are
all the same.

4. Assuming the outcomes to be equally likely, find the probability that exactly one of
the three tosses is ”Heads.”

Practice 3
When two balanced dice are rolled,
1. Find the number of outcomes in the sample space.

1
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2. The probability of the sum of the dice is 11.

3. The probability of doubles are rolled; that is, both dice come up the same number.

4. The probability of the sum of the dice is 1.

5. The probability of the sum of the dice is 12 or less.

Practice 4
Hospital records indicated that knee replacement patients stayed in the hospital for the
number of days shown in the distribution.

Number of days stayed Frequency

3 15
4 32
5 56
6 19
7 5

1. Find these probabilities.

1. A patient stayed exactly 5 days.

2. A patient stayed at most 4 days.

3. A patient stayed at least 5 days.

4. Does the probability of all classes add up to 1? Why is this?

Section 4.2
Practice 1
Let A and B be events with P (A)= 0.6, P (B) = 0.2, and P (A and B) = 0.1.

1. Are A and B independent? Explain.

2. Compute P(A or B).

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3. Are A and B mutually exclusive? Explain.

Practice 2
If two events A and B are independent and you know that P(A) = 0.3, what is the value of
P (A|B)?

Practice 3
An office has three smoke detectors. In case of fire, each detector has probability 0.9 of
detecting it. If a fire occurs, what is the probability that at least one detector detects it?

Practice 4
The following table displays the 100 senators of the 116th U.S. Congress on January 3, 2019,
classified by political party affiliation and gender.

Male Female Total

Democrat 28 17 45
Republican 45 8 53
Independent 2 0 2
Total 75 25 100

A senator is selected at random from this group. Compute the following probabilities.
1. What is the probability that the senator is a woman?

2. What is the probability that the senator is a Republican?

3. What is the probability that the senator is a Republican and a woman?

4. Given that the senator is a woman, what is the probability that she is a Republican?

5. Given that the senator is a Republican, what is the probability that the senator is a
woman?
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Chapter 4 Review
Question 1
Suppose that 12.4% of all humans are left-handed.
(a) What is the probability that the next person you run into is left-handed?
(b) What is the probability that the next person you run into is right-handed?

Question 2
1. You are given the information that P(A) = 0.30 and P(B) = 0.40.
(a) Do you have enough information to compute P(A or B)? Explain.
(b) If you know that events A and B are mutually exclusive, do you have enough
information to compute (A or B)? Explain.

2. You are given the information that P(A) = 0.30 and P(B) = 0.40.
(a) Do you have enough information to compute P(A and B)? Explain.
(b) If you know that events A and B are independent, do you have enough information
to compute P(A and B)? Explain.

Question 3
In a recent semester at a local university, 600 students enrolled in both Statistics I and
Psychology I. Of these students, 82 got an A in statistics, 71 got an A in psychology, and
48 got an A in both statistics and psychology. Round the answers to four decimal places, as
needed.
(a) What is the probability that a randomly selected student got an A in both Statistics
and Psychology?
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(b) Find the probability that a randomly chosen student got an A in statistics or psy-
chology or both.
(c) Find the probability that a randomly chosen student did not get an A in statistics.
(d) Given that a student got an A in Statistics, what is the probability that they also
got an A in Psychology

Question 4
The table includes of r imply that as x increases, y tends to decrease. the number of students
enrolled in each course by class rank.

Course Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior Total

Math 50 40 30 20 140
English 60 35 25 15 135
Total 110 75 55 35 275

(a) What is the probability that a randomly selected student is a Sophomore and enrolled
in Math?
(b) Given that a student is enrolled in Math, what is the probability that the student is
a Junior?
(c) Given that a student is a Junior, what is the probability that the student is enrolled
in Math?
(d) What is the probability that a randomly selected student is not a Senior?
(e) Let E1 be an event that a student is a Junior, and let E2 be an event that a student
is from English class.

1. Find the probability P (E1 or E2 ).

2. Are E1 and E2 mutually exclusive? Why? Or, why not?

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Question 5
An office has three smoke detectors. In case of fire, each detector has probability 0.9 of
detecting it. If a fire occurs, what is the probability that at least one detector detects it?

Question 6
John has five different pairs of sneakers. There are 2 pairs of white sneakers, 2 pairs of black
sneakers, and 1 pair of red sneakers. He also has eight different hats. There are 5 blue hats,
2 black hats, and 1 red hat.
Let event E1 : picking a pair of red sneakers; event E2 : picking a red hat
(a) Are events E1 and E2 independent of each other?
(b) What is the probability P (E1 and E2 )?

Question 7
A university is hosting a student conference where each attendee will receive a conference
package. The package includes:

• 3 choices for a notebook (blue, red, or green)

• 4 choices for a pen (black, blue, red, or green)

• 2 choices for a keychain (circle or square)

How many different combinations of notebook, pen, and keychain can the students choose
from?