4

Probability

Lesson 4.3
Two-Way Tables and Venn Diagrams
Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition
Starnes & Tabor

Bedford Freeman Worth Publishers

 Two-Way Tables and Venn Diagrams
Learning Targets
After this lesson, you should be able to:

 Use a two-way table to find probabilities.

 Calculate probabilities with the general addition rule.
 Use a Venn diagram to find probabilities.

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 2

 Two-Way Tables and Venn Diagrams
Mutually exclusive events A and B cannot both happen at the same time. For
such events, “A or B” means that only event A happens or only event B
happens.

You can find P(A or B) with the addition rule for mutually exclusive events:
P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B)

How can we find P(A or B) when the two events are not mutually exclusive?
Now we have to deal with the fact that “A or B” means one or the other or
both.

When you’re trying to find probabilities involving two events, like P(A or B),
a two-way table can display the sample space in a way that makes probability
calculations easier.

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 3

 Happy, Healthy, Rich, or Famous?
Two-way tables and probability
One question on the Census at School survey (
http://www.amstat.org/censusatschool/index.cfm) asks students if they would
prefer to be happy, healthy, rich or famous. Students may only choose one of
these responses. The two-way table below summarizes the responses of 218
high school students from the United States by gender.

    GENDER  
    Female Male Total
Happy 90 46 136
STATUS

Healthy 20 13 33
Rich 10 31 41
Famous 0 8 8
  Total 120 98 218

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 4

 Happy, Healthy, Rich, or Famous?
Two-way tables and probability
    GENDER  
    Female Male Total
Happy 90 46 136
STATUS Healthy 20 13 33
Rich 10 31 41
Famous 0 8 8
  Total 120 98 218

PROBLEM: Suppose we choose a student at random from these 218

students. Define event A as getting a female student and event B as getting a
student who prefers to be happy.
(a) Find P(B). Interpret this value in context.
136
P  B   P  happy    0.624.
218
There is about a 62% chance that a randomly selected student from these
218 students will prefer to be happy.

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 5

 Happy, Healthy, Rich, or Famous?
Two-way tables and probability
    GENDER  
    Female Male Total
Happy 90 46 136
STATUS Healthy 20 13 33
Rich 10 31 41
Famous 0 8 8
  Total 120 98 218

PROBLEM: Suppose we choose a student at random from these 218

students. Define event A as getting a female student and event B as getting a
student who prefers to be happy.
(b) Find P(female and happy).

P(female and happy) = 90

 0.413.
218

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 6

 Happy, Healthy, Rich, or Famous?
Two-way tables and probability
    GENDER  
    Female Male Total
Happy 90 46 136
STATUS Healthy 20 13 33
Rich 10 31 41
Famous 0 8 8
  Total 120 98 218

PROBLEM: Suppose we choose a student at random from these 218

students. Define event A as getting a female student and event B as getting a
student who prefers to be happy.
(c) Find P(A or B).

P(A or B) = P(female or happy) = 90  20  10  0  46 166

  0.303.
218 218

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 7

 Two-Way Tables and Venn Diagrams
When you’re trying to find probabilities involving two events, like P(A or B),
a two-way table can display the sample space in a way that makes probability
calculations easier. Consider the example about pierced ears in males and
females.

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 8

 Two-Way Tables and Venn Diagrams

We can’t use the addition rule for mutually exclusive events unless
events A and B have no outcomes in common. In the example, there
are 19 outcomes that are shared by events A and B—the students who
are male and have a pierced ear. If we did add the probabilities of A
and B, we’d get 90/178 + 103/178 = 193/178. This is clearly wrong
because the probability is bigger than 1!

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 9

 Two-Way Tables and Venn Diagrams
We can fix the double-counting problem illustrated in the two-way table
by subtracting the probability P(male and pierced ear) from the sum.

This result is known as the general addition rule.

The General Addition Rule for Two Events

If A and B are any two events resulting from some chance process, the
general addition rule says that
P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B) − P(A and B)

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 10

 Cell phone or landline?
General addition rule
PROBLEM: In one large city, 92% of all residents have a cell phone, 64%
have a landline, and 59% have both. What’s the probability that a randomly
selected resident has a cell phone or a landline?

Let C = has a cell phone and L = has a landline.

P(C or L)
= P(C) + P(L) – P(C and L)
= 0.92 + 0.64 – 0.59
= 0.97

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 11

 Two-Way Tables and Venn Diagrams
Two-way tables can be used to illustrate the sample space of a chance
process involving two events. So can Venn diagrams.

Venn Diagram

A Venn diagram consists of one or more circles surrounded by a rectangle.

Each circle represents an event. The region inside the rectangle represents
the sample space of the chance process.

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 12

 Two-Way Tables and Venn Diagrams
In the previous examples, our events of interest were A: is male and B:
has a pierced ear. Here is the two-way table that summarizes the data.

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 13

 Two-Way Tables and Venn Diagrams
Some standard vocabulary and notation have been developed to
make our work with Venn diagrams a bit easier.

• The complement AC contains the outcomes that are not in A.

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 14

 Two-Way Tables and Venn Diagrams
• The event “A and B” is also called the intersection of A and B. The
corresponding notation is A ∩ B.

• The event “A or B” is also known as the union of A and B. The

corresponding notation is A ∪ B.

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 15

 Two-Way Tables and Venn Diagrams

Intersection, Union
• The event “A and B” is called the intersection of events A and B. It
consists of all outcomes that are common to both events, and is denoted
A ∩ B.

• The event “A or B” is called the union of events A and B. It consists of

all outcomes that are in event A or event B, or both, and is denoted A ∪
B.

With this new notation, we can rewrite the general addition rule in
symbols as:
P(A ∪ B) = P(A) + P(B) − P(A ∩ B)

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 16

 Who has pets?
Venn diagrams and probability
PROBLEM: In one large city, 40% of all households own a dog, 32% own a
cat, and 18% own both. Suppose we randomly select a household and record
which type of pet is owned by that household.
(a) Make a Venn diagram to display the sample space of this chance process
using the events D: owns a dog and C: owns a cat.

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 17

 Who has pets?
Venn diagrams and probability
PROBLEM: In one large city, 40% of all households own a dog, 32% own a
cat, and 18% own both. Suppose we randomly select a household and record
which type of pet is owned by that household.
(b) Find the probability that the resident owns a dog and not a cat.
P(owns only a dog)
= P(owns a dog) – P(owns both)
= 0.40 – 0.18
= 0.22

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 18

 LESSON APP 4.3 Who owns a home?

What is the relationship between educational

achievement and home ownership? A random
sample of 500 U.S. adults was selected. Each
member of the sample was identified as a high
school graduate (or not) and as a homeowner
(or not). The two-way table displays the data.

Suppose we choose a member of the sample at random.

Define events G: is a high school graduate and H: is a homeowner.

1. Explain why P(G or H) ≠ P(G) + P(H). Then find P(G or H).

2. Make a Venn diagram to display the sample space of this chance process.
3. Write the event “is not a high school graduate but is a homeowner” in
symbolic form.

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 19

 LESSON APP 4.3 Who owns a home?

1. Explain why P(G or H) ≠ P(G) + P(H). Then find P(G or H).

2. Make a Venn diagram to display the sample space of this chance process.

3. Write the event “is not a high school graduate but is a homeowner” in
symbolic form.

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 20

 Two-Way Tables and Venn Diagrams
Learning Targets
After this lesson, you should be able to:

 Use a two-way table to find probabilities.

 Calculate probabilities with the general addition rule.
 Use a Venn diagram to find probabilities.

Statistics and Probability with Applications, 3rd Edition 21