1. A box contains 4 white and 6 black balls. Two balls are drawn out together. What is the probability that both are black? Easy
A. 1/3
B. 2/3
C. 1/6
D. None of these

View Answer

Answer: Option A

Explanation:

Here n(S) = number of elements in the sample space S = number of ways in which 2 balls can be withdrawn out of 4+6 i.e., 10 balls = 10C2 = (10*9)/(2*1) = 45

If E be the event of drawing 2 black balls, the n(E) = the number of ways in which 2 black balls can be drawn out of 6 black balls = 6C2 = (6*5)/(2*1) = 15

Required probability = n(E)/n(S) = 15/45 = 1/3

2. A bag contains 5 red, 4 white and 6 green balls. Three balls are drawn out together. What is the probability that a red, a white and a green ball are drawn? Easy
A. 15/91
B. 24/91
C. 15/21
D. None of these

View Answer

Answer: Option B

Explanation:

Total number of balls in the bag = 5+4+6 = 15

n(S) = number of elements in the sample space S = number of ways in which 3 balls are drawn together at random out of 15 balls = 15C3 = (15*14*13)/(3*2*1) = 5*7*13
If E be the event of drawing one red, one white and one green ball, then n(E) = number of ways in which one red ball out of 5 red balls, one white ball out of 4 white balls and one green ball out of 6 green balls can be drawn

= 5C1*4C1*6C1 = 5*4*6

Required probability = n(E)/n(S) = (5*4*6)/(5*7*13) = 24/91

3. A bag contains 6 white, 7 red and 5 black balls. Find the chance that three balls drawn at random are all white. What is the probability that none of the three balls drawn are white? Medium
A. 5/204,55/204
B. 7/204,55/204
C. 17/204,55/204
D. None of these

View Answer

Answer: Option A

Explanation:

Total number of balls = 6+7+5 = 18

n(S) = 18C3 = (18*17*16)/(3*2*1) = 48*17

If E be the event of drawing three white balls out of 6, then

n(E) = 6C3 = (6*5*4)/(3*2*1) = 20

Required probability = n(E)/n(S) = 20/(48*17)= 5/204

Now, n(S) = 18C3 = 48*17

If E be the event that none of the three balls drawn at random is white, then n(E) = number of ways in which 3 balls can be drawn out of 7 red and 5 black balls i.e. 12 non-white balls

=12C3 = (12*11*10)/(3*2*1) = 2*11*10

P(E) = n(E)/n(S) = (2*11*10)/(48*17) = 55/204

4. A bag contains 6 red, 4 white and 8 blue balls. If three balls are drawn at random, determine the probability that:

i. All three are red

ii. All three are blue

iii. Two are white and one is red

Medium
A. 5/204,7/102, 1/17
B. 5/204,7/102, 3/17
C. 7/204,7/102, 1/17
D. None of these

View Answer

Answer: Option A

Explanation:

Total number of = 6+4+8 = 18

Out of these, 3 balls can be drawn in 18C3 ways, so the number of exhaustive cases = 18C3 = (18*17*16)/(3*2*1) = 17*48 = n(S)

 

i. 3 red balls can be drawn in 6C3 ways, so if E1 be the event of drawing 3 red balls, then n(E1) = 6C3 = 20

P(E1) = n(E1)/n(S) = 20/(17*48) = 5/204

 

ii. If E2 be the event of drawing 3 blue balls, then n(E2) = 8C3 = (8*7*6)/(3*2*1) = 56

P(E2) = n(E2)/n(S) = 56/(17*48) = 7/102

 

iii. If E3 be the event of drawing 2 white and one red balls, then

n(E3) = 4C2*8C1 = (4*3*9)/(2*1*1) = 48

P(E3) = n(E3)/n(S) = 48/(17*48) = 1/17

5. Two cards are drawn simultaneously from the same set. Find the probability that at least one of them will be the ace of hearts. Easy
A. 1/2704
B. 1/26
C. 1/13
D. None of these

View Answer

Answer: Option B

Explanation:

Let E1 & E2 be the events that the first card drawn and the second card drawn is an ace of heart respectively.

Since both the cards are drawn simultaneously from the same set, so both of them cannot be the ace of heart, thus E1 and E2 are mutually exclusive.

Also, P(E1) = 1/52 = P(E2), as there is only one ace of heart in the pack of 52 cards.

Required probability = P(E1 ∪ E2) = P(E1)+P(E2) = 1/52 + 1/52 = 2/52 = 1/26

6. From 10,000 lottery tickets numbered from 1 to 10,000 one ticket is drawn at random. What is the probability that number marked on the drawn ticket is divisible by 20? Medium
A. 1/20
B. 3/20
C. 1/100
D. None of these

View Answer

Answer: Option A

Explanation:

Here n(S) = number of elements in the sample space S = number of ways in which one ticket can be drawn out of 10,000 = 10,000.

Let E be the event that the number marked on the drawn ticket is divisible by 20, so we have

n(E) = number of those drawn tickets, the numbers marked on which are divisible by 20 = 500 (obtained by dividing 10000 by 20)

P(E) = (n(E))/(n(S)) = 500/10,000 = 1/20

7. A coin is tossed twice. Events E1 and E2 are defined as follows:

E1 = heads on first toss

E2 = heads on second toss

Find the probability of E1 E2.

Medium
A. 1/4
B. 3/4
C. 5/6
D. None of these

View Answer

Answer: Option B

Explanation:

If H and T denote the appearance of ‘head’ and ‘tail’ on tossing a coin, then if we toss two coins, the possible results are 2*2 i.e. 4 and so the sample space S can be written as
S = {(H,H), (H,T), (T,H), (T,T)}
Where (H,T) means ‘head’ appearing on first coin and ‘tail’ on second.
Now, according to the problem E1 = {(H,H), (H,T)} and E2 = {(H,H), (T,H)}
E1 ∪ E2 = {(H,H), (H,T), (T,H)}
-> n(S) = 4 and n(E1 ∪ E2) = 3
-> P(E1 ∪ E2) = n(E1 ∪ E2)/n(S) = 3/4

8. Let A and B be two possible outcomes of an experiment and suppose P(A) = 0.4, P(B) = x and P(A∪B) = 0.7. Find for what value of x, the events A and B are:

i. mutually exclusive
ii. independent

Medium
A. 0.3,1/2
B. 0.5,1/2
C. 0.2,1/2
D. None of these

View Answer

Answer: Option A

Explanation:

i. A and B are mutually exclusive
Therefore, P(A∪B) = P(A) + P(B)
-> 0.7 = 0.4+x
-> x = 0.7-0.4 = 0.3
-> x = 3/10

 

ii. P(A∪B) = P(A) + P(B) – P(A∩B)
-> 0.7 = 0.4 +x – P(A∩B)
-> P(A∩B) = x-0.3 —– ❶
Also, if A and B are independent events, then P(A∩B) = P(A). P(B)
-> x-0.3 = (0.4) x, from ❶ and given values
-> (1-0.4) x = 0.3
-> x = 0.3/0.6 = 1/2

9. Two dice are thrown once. What is the probability:

i. that sum of the numbers appearing on the dice is 7 or 8?

ii. of getting an even number on the first die or a total of 8?

iii. that the sum is neither 7 nor 11?

Difficult
A. 11/36,4/9,7/9
B. 11/36,5/9,2/9
C. 11/36,5/9,7/9
D. None of these

View Answer

Answer: Option C

Explanation:

There are six numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 which can appear on the upper face of each dice, so combining the outcomes of both the dice, the total number of outcomes = 6*6 = 36 and so if S be the sample space S of the experiment, then n(S) = 36, where S = {(1,1), (1,2), ….., (1,6), (2,1), ….., (5,6), (6,1), (6,2) ….., (6,6)}, where
(5, 6) means 5 appearing on the first die and 6 appearing on the second die.

 

i. Let E1 be the event that sum of number on the dice is 7, then
E1 = {(1,6), (2,5), (3,4), (4,3), (5,2), (6,1)}
Therefore, n(E1) = 6 and so P(E1) = n(E1)/n(S) = 6/36 = 1/6
And E2 be the event that sum of numbers on the dice is 8, then
E2 = {(2,6), (3,5), (4,4), (5,3), (6,2)}
n(E2) = 5 and so P(E2) = n(E2)/n(S) = 5/36
Events E1 and E2 are mutually exclusive, so the required probability =P(E1 ∪ E2) = P(E1) + P(E2) = 1/6 + 5/36 = 11/36

 

ii. Let E1 be the event that the number on the first die is even, then we have
E1 = {(2,1), (2,2) ….., (2,6), (4,1), (4,2), ….., (4,6), (6,1), (6,2), ….., (6,5), (6,6)}
n(E1) = 18 and so P(E2) = n(E2)/n(S) = 18/36
Also, if E2 be the event that the sum of numbers on the dice is 8, then E2 = {(2,6), (3,5), (4,4), (5,3), (6,2)}
n(E2) = 5 and so P(E2) = n(E2)/n(S) = 5/36
Also, E1 and E2 are not mutually exclusive, as they have three common elements e.g. (2,6), (4,4), (6,2)
n (E1 ∩ E22) = number of elements common to E1 and E2 i.e. n(E1 ∩ E2) = n(E1 ∩ E2)/n(S) = 3/36
Required probability = P((E1 ∪ E2) = P(E1) + P(E2) – P(E1 ∩ E2) = 18/36 + 5/36 – 3/36 = 20/36 = 5/9

 

iii. If E1 and E2be the events that the sum of numbers on the dice are 7 and 11 respectively, then
E1 = {(1,6), (2,5), (3,4), (4,3), (5,2), (6,1)} and E2 = {(5,6), (6,5)}
-> n(E1) = 6, n(E2) = 2
-> P(E1) = n(E1)/n(S) = 6/36; P(E2) = n(E2)/n(S) = 2/36
Also, as E1 and E2 are mutually exclusive events, so we have
P(E1 ∪ E2) = P(E1) + P(E2) = 6/36 + 2/36 = 8/36 = 2/9
The required probability = probability of non-occurrence of both E1 and E2 = 1 – P(E1 ∪ E2) = 1 – (2/9) = 7/9

10. From a pack of cards, one card is selected at random. What is the probability that the card is a spade, a court and a deuce? Difficult
A. 1/2
B. 25/52
C. 1/26
D. None of these

View Answer

Answer: Option B

Explanation:

In a pack there are 52 cards out of which 13 are spades, 12 are court and 4 are deuce. So, if E1, E2 and E3 be the events of a drawing a spade, a court and a deuce, and S be the sample space, then n(S) = 52, n(E1) = 13, n(E­2) = 12 and n(E3) = 4

P(E1) = n(E1)/n(S) = 13/52

P(E2) = n(E2)/n(S) = 12/52

P(E3) = n(E3)/n(S) = 4/52

Here the events E2 and E3 are mutually exclusive, but the events E1 and E2 or E1 and E3 are not so.

-> n(E2 ∩ E3) = 0

And n(E1 ∩ E2) = number of elements common in E1 and E2 = 3, since there are 3 court cards of spade; similarly n (E1 ∩ E3) = 1, since there is one deuce card of spade.

Also, n (E1 ∩ E2 ∩ E3) = number of elements common in E1, E2 and E3 = 0, as there is no element common in three

Required probability = probability that either E1 or E2 or E3 happens = P(E1 ∪ E2 ∪ E3) = P(E1) + P (E2) + P(E3) – P(E1 ∩ E2) – P(E2 ∩ E3) – P(E3 ∩ E1) + P(E1 ∩ E2 ∩ E3)

= 13/36 + 12/36 + 4/36 – n(E1 ∩ E2)/n(S) – n(E2 ∩ E3)/n(S) – n(E3 ∩ E1)/n(S) + n(E1 ∩ E2 ∩ E3)/n(S) = 13/52+ 12/52+ 4/52 – 3/52 – 0/52 – 1/52 + 0/52 = 25/52