Dayananda Sagar University

School of Engineering
Devarakaggalahalli, Harohalli, Ramanagara District, Karnataka-562 112

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

MODULE 1: PROBABILITY
Dr. SRIKUMAR

Practice Problems

Addition Theorem in Probability Theory

(1) There are 10 students of which 3 are graduates. If a committee of five is to be formed, what
is the probability that there are (i) only 2 graduates (ii) at least 2 graduates.
Ans: (i) 5/12 or 0.4166 (ii) ½ or 0.5

(2) From 6 positive and 8 negative numbers, 4 numbers are chosen at random and multiplied.
What is the probability that the product is a positive number?
Ans: 0.01499+0.06993+0.41985= 0.50449(or) 15/1001+ 70/1001 + 420/1001 =505/1001

(3) The probability that a person A solves the problem is 1/3, that of B is 1/2 and that of C is
3/5. If the problem is simultaneously assigned to all of them what is the probability that the
problem is solved?
Ans: 13/15

(4) A shooter can hit a target in 3 out of 5 shots and another shooter can hit the target in 2 out
of 4 shots. Find the probability that
(a) the target is being hit when both of them try
(b) the target is hit by only one shooter.
Ans: (a) 4/5 (or) 0.8 (b) ½ (or) 0.5

(5) Three students A, B, C write an entrance examination. Their chances of passing are 1/2, 1/3,
and 1/4 respectively. Find the probability that
(a) at least one of them passes
(b) all of them passes
(c) at least two of them passes.
Ans: (a) 3/4 or 0.75 (b) 1/24 or 0.04166 (c) 7/24 or 0.29166

(6) Two cards are drawn in succession from a pack of 52 cards. Find the probability that the first
is king and the second is queen if the first card is (a) replaced (b) not replaced.
Ans: (a) 4/52*4/52=1/169, (b) 4/52*4/51= 4/663)

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 Dayananda Sagar University
School of Engineering
Devarakaggalahalli, Harohalli, Ramanagara District, Karnataka-562 112

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

(7) Two dice are thrown. Find the probability of (a) getting an odd number on the one and a
multiple of 3 on the other (b) one of the dice showed 3 and the sum on the two dice is 9 (c)
sum on the two dice is 9 (d) sum on the two dice is 13.
Ans: (a) 12/36 (b) 2/36 (c) 4/36 (d) 0

(8) A student takes an examination with four subjects Maths, Physics, Chemistry and English. She
estimates her chances of passing in Maths as 4/5, in Physics as 3/4, in Chemistry as 5/6 and
in English as 2/3. To qualify, she must pass in Maths and at least two other subjects. What is
the probability that she qualifies?
Ans: 60/360+24/360+40/360+120/360=244/360 or 61/90 or 0.67778

(9) 5 balls are drawn at random from a bag of 6 white and 4 black balls. What is the chance
that 3 of them are white and 2 are black?
Ans: 120/252 or 0.47619

(10) A bag contains 2 white and 4 red balls while another bag contains 5 white and 7 red balls. A
ball is drawn at random from the first bag and put in the second bag. Then a ball is drawn at
random from the second bag. What is the probability that it is a white ball?
Ans: 32/78 or 0.41025

(11) Two coins are flipped. Assume that all four points in the sample space are equally likely. Let
E1 denote the event that the first lands on heads and E2 denote the event that the second
lands on tails. Determine if E1 and E2 are independent.
Ans: 𝑃(𝐸1 ∩ 𝐸2) = 0.25 = 𝑃(𝐸1) ∗ 𝑃(𝐸2)

Conditional Probability:
1) At Karnataka Middle School, the probability that a student takes Technology and Science is
0.087. The probability that a student takes Technology is 0.68. What is the probability that
a student takes Science given that the student is taking Technology?
Ans: 0.1279

2) In a school, 25% of the students failed in first language, 15% of the students failed in second
language and 10% of the students failed in both. If a student is selected at random find the
probability that
(i) He failed in first language if he had failed in second language (ans: 0.666)
(ii) He failed in second language if he had failed in the first language (ans: 0.4)

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 Dayananda Sagar University
School of Engineering
Devarakaggalahalli, Harohalli, Ramanagara District, Karnataka-562 112

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

(iii) He failed in either of the two languages.

Ans: (i) 0.666 (ii) 0.4 (iii) 0.3

3) The probability that a new car battery functions for more than 10,000 miles is 0.8, the
probability that it functions for more than 20,000 miles is 0.4 and the probability that it
functions for more than 30,000 miles is 0.1. If a new car battery is still working after 10,000,
what is the probability that
(i) its total life will exceed 20,000 miles?
(ii) its additional life will exceed 20,000 miles?
Ans: 0.5, 0.125

4) Suppose that an urn contains 8 red balls and 4 white balls. We draw 2 balls from the urns
without replacement
(a) If we assume that each draw, each ball in the urn is equally likely to be chosen, what
is the probability that both balls drawn are red?
Ans: 14/33 or 0.4242
(b) Now suppose that the balls have different weights, with red ball having weight r and
each white ball having weight w. Suppose that the probability that a given ball in the urn is
the next one selected is its weights divided by the sum of the weights of all balls currently
in the urn. Now what is the probability that both balls are red?

5) The probability that the regularly scheduled flight departs on time is 0.83, arrives on time is
0.82 and departs and arrives on time is 0.78. Find the probability that the plane
(a) arrives on time given it has departed on time
(b) departed on time given it has arrived on time
Ans: 0.9397, 0.9512

6) The probability that an automobile being filled with gasoline also needs an oil change is 0.25,
the probability that it needs a new oil filter is 0.40 and the probability that it needs both new
oil change and oil filter is 0.14.
(a) If the oil has to be changed then what is the probability that it needs a new oil filter?
Ans: 0.56
(b) If the oil filter is needed then what is the probability that it needs a new oil change?
Ans: 0.35

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 Dayananda Sagar University
School of Engineering
Devarakaggalahalli, Harohalli, Ramanagara District, Karnataka-562 112

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

7) The probability that a married man watches a certain television show is 0.40 and that of a
married woman is 0.5. The probability that the man watches the show given that his wife
watches is 0.7.
(a) what is the probability that the woman watches the show given that her husband watches
the show?
Ans: 0.875, P(A and B)=0.35
(b) what is the probability that atleast one member of the married couple will watch the
show?
Ans: 0.55

Baye’s Theorem:
1) Three major parties A, B, C are contending for power in the elections of a state and the chance
of their winning the election is in the ratio 1: 3: 5. The parties A, B, C respectively have
probabilities of banning the online lottery 2/3, 1/3, 3/5. What is the probability that there will
be a ban on the online lottery in the state? What is the probability that the ban is from the party
C?

Ans: 14/27 or 0.518518

2) A laboratory blood test is 95% effective in detecting a certain disease when it is, in fact, present.
However, the test also yields a ”false positive” result for 1% of the healthy people tested. If
0.5% of the population actually has the disease, what is the probability that a person has the
disease given that the test result is positive?

Ans: 0.0147, 0.32313

3) In answering a question on a multiple-choice test, a student either knows the answer or

guesses. Let p be the probability that the student knows the answer and 1-p be the probability
that the student guesses. Assume that a student who guesses at the answer will be correct with
probability 1/m, where m is the number of multiple-choice alternatives. What is the
conditional probability that a student knew the answer to a question given that he or she
answered its correctly?

Ans: {(m-1) p+1}/m, pm/{(m-1)p+1}

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 Dayananda Sagar University
School of Engineering
Devarakaggalahalli, Harohalli, Ramanagara District, Karnataka-562 112

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

4) Suppose a drug test is 99% sensitive and 99% specific. That is, the test will produce 99% true
positive results for drug users and 99% true negative results for non-drug users. Suppose that
0.5% of people are users of the drug. If a randomly selected individual tests positive, what is
the probability that he is a user?

Ans: 0.01490, 0.33221

5) An insurance company believes that people can be divided into two classes: those who are
accident prone and those who are not. The company’s statistics show that an accident-prone
person will have an accident at some time within a fixed 1-year period with probability 0.4,
whereas this probability decreases to 0.2 for a person who is not accident prone. If we assume
that 30 percent of the population is accident prone, what is the probability that a new
policyholder will have an accident within a year of purchasing a policy? Also find what is the
probability that he or she is accident prone?

Ans: 0.26, 0.46153

6) In a certain day care 30% of the children have grey eyes, 50% have blue and 20% eyes are in
other colours. One day they play a game together. In first run, 65% of the grey eye ones, 82%
of the blue eyes and 50% of the children with other eye were selected. Now if a child is selected
randomly from the class and we know that the child was not in the first game, what is the
probability that the child has blue eyes?

Ans: 0.705, 0.295, 0.30508

7) Suppose there are coloured balls distributed in three boxes in quantities as given by the table
below. A box is selected at random. From that box a ball is selected at random. How likely is it
that a red ball is drawn? What is the probability that the red ball is from box 3?

Ans: 0.33577, 0.29752

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 Dayananda Sagar University
School of Engineering
Devarakaggalahalli, Harohalli, Ramanagara District, Karnataka-562 112

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

(8) A paint store chain produces and sells latex and semigloss paints. Based on a long range sales,
the probability that a customer will purchase latex paint is 0.75. Of those that purchase latex
paint 60% also purchase rollers. But only 30% of semigloss paint buyers purchase rollers. A
randomly selected buyer purchases a roller and a can of paint. What is the probability that the
paint is latex? Ans: 0.525 and 0.8571