Median = l + [(n/2 –m) x c /f] , where l = Lower limit of the median class, f = Frequency of the

median class c = Width of the median class, n = The total frequency m = cumulative frequency of
the class preceding the median class
Median = l + [(n/2 –m) x c /f]=20+[(80.5 – 60) x 10 / 46] = 20 + (20.5 x 10 /46) = 20 +4.46 =24.46

A distribution having only one mode is called unimodal. In the set of values 482, 485, 483, 485,
487, 487, 489, both 485 and 487 occur twice. This list is said to have two modes or bimodal. A
distribution having three modes is called trimodal. A distribution having more than three modes is
called multimodal.
Mode - Grouped Frequency Distribution
Mode = l + ( f –f1)/(2f – f1 –f2 ) x c where l = lower limit of the modal class, f = frequency of modal
class, c = class width of the modal class, f1 = frequency of the class just preceding the modal class
and f2 = frequency of the class succeeding the modal class.
Example
Calculate the mode of the following data.
Size of item 10-15 15-20 20-25 25-30 30-35 35-40 40-45 45-50
No of items 4 8 18 30 20 10 5 2
Solution
Modal class is 25-30 since it has the maximum frequency. Here Lower limit of the modal class l =
25, Frequency of the modal class f = 30, Frequency of the preceding the modal class f1 = 18 ,
Frequency of the class reducing the modal class f2 = 20, Class width c = 5
Mode= l + ( f –f1)/(2f –f1–f2)xc =25+(30-18)/(2x30 -18 -20) x 5 = 25 + 12/22 x 5 = 25 +2.73 = 27.73

In a test, the marks X or higher, obtained by 140 students is given below. Marks are given in whole
numbers. Calculate the mean, median and mode.
X 10 20 390 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
>c.f. 140 133 118 100 75 45 25 9 2 0

In this case, convert into a standard gropued distribution as below:

X 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70 70-80 80-90 90-100
>c.f. 7 15 18 25 30 20 16 7 2

Measures of dispersion
Mean, median and mode are measures of central tendency. They cannot give a complete idea about
the distribution. For example, consider the following two different series (i) 82, 74, 89, 95 and (ii)
120, 62, 28, 130. The two have the same Mean 85. In the first case, the numbers are close to the
mean, but in the second case, the numbers are widely scattered.
This is called dispersion and we need a measure to tell us about it. There are many measures but we
will study about two of them – namely, Range (R), and Standard Deviation (S.D).
Range
Range is the difference between the largest and the smallest numbers in the list. Let us take the
items - 43, 24, 38, 56, 22, 39, 45. Arranging them in the ascending order - 22, 24, 38, 39, 43, 45,
56,we see the smallest value to be 22 and the largest to be 56. Hence the range = 56-22 = 34
(L-S)/(L+S) is known as the coefficient of range. Here it is 34/(56+22) = 0.436
Standard deviation
Square the differences between each data and the mean is another measure of dispersion and is
known as the Variance. The positive square root of the Variance is known as the Standard Deviation
(SD).
A low SD indicates that the data points are very close to the mean, while a high SD indicates that the
data is spread out over a large range. We use μ and σ to denote the mean and the standard deviation
of a distribution respectively.
Depending on the nature of data, we shall calculate the standard deviation σ (after arranging the
given data either in ascending or descending order) by using the following formulae (proofs are not
given). Formula for Variance = ( ∑ x2) /n - ∑ μ2.
σ can also be expressed as SQRT(∑ (x- μ)2 /n) or SQRT(∑d2 /n), where d = x- μ)
Example
The number of books read by 8 students during a month are 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 6, 12, 10. Calculate the
standard deviation of the data.
Solution ∑x= 68. Mean μ =68/8 =8.5
Compute x2 for all x’s.(4, 25, 36, 64, 100, 121, 144, 196). and ∑ x2 = 690.
Hence, σ = SQRT ( 690/8 – 8.52) = SQRT (86.25- 72.25) = 3.74
Coefficient of variation (CV) is defined as (σ / μ ) x 100. It is also called as a relative standard
deviation and is used to compare the consistency of different data. When the coefficient of variation
is more, the given data is less consistent. When the coefficient of variation is less, the given data is
more consistent.
Example
Following are the runs scored by two batsmen in 5 cricket matches. Who is more consistent in
scoring runs. A) 38 47 34 18 33 B) 37 35 41 27 35
For Batsman A, μ = 34 and σ = 9.4. Therefore, CV= 9.4/34 x100 = 27.65
For Batsman B, μ = 35 and σ = 4.6. Therefore, CV= 4.6/35 x100 = 13.14
Obviously, B is more consistent.
Standard Deviation for ungrouped Data
Formula: σ = √(∑fd2 /∑f ) This is called the Actual Mean Method. (There is also one assumed
Mean Method).

The following table shows the marks obtained by 48 students in a Quiz competition in Mathematics.
Calculate the standard deviation.

Data x 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Sum
Frequency f 3 6 9 13 8 5 4 48

Add rows for ∑ and fx. Compute μ =432/48 =9

 fx 18 42 72 117 80 55 48 432

Add rows for d = (x- μ) , fd, fd2

d = x- μ =x-9 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
fd -9 -12 -9 0 8 10 12 0
2
fd 27 24 9 0 8 20 36 124

σ = √(∑fd2 /∑f ) =√ (124/48) = 1.61

11. Calculate the mean and standard deviation , for the following data
Size of item 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Frequency 3 6 9 13 8 5 4

Standard Deviation for grouped Data

Find the variance of the following distribution.

Class Interval 3.5-4.5 4.5-5.5 5.5-6.5 6.5-7.5 7.5-8.5 Sum
Frequency 9 14 22 8 12 65
Mid-point 4 5 6 7 8
Fx 36 70 132 56 96 390
d= x- μ =x-6 -2 -1 0 1 2
Fd -18 -14 0 8 24 0
2
fd 36 14 0 8 48 106

Calculate the mid-point. Compute∑ fx, ∑ f and from that μ = 390/65 = 6 .Then calculate d, fd, fd2.
σ = √(∑fd2 /∑f ) =√ (106/65) = 1.27

10. Calculate the mean and standard deviation ,given the age distribution of 542 memebers.
Age (Yrs) 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70 70-80 80-90
No of Members 3 61 132 153 140 51 2

Correlation and Regression Analysis

Correlation analysis is used to quantify the relationship between two variables (one independent
and the other dependent or both independent). Regression analysis is a related technique to find the
exact relationship as an equation between a dependent variable y and one or several input variables
xi .

Correlation Analysis
In correlation analysis, we estimate a sample correlation coefficient, known as Pearson Product
Moment correlation coefficient. The sample correlation coefficient, denoted r, ranges between -1
and +1. The sign of the correlation coefficient indicates the direction of the association. The
magnitude of the correlation coefficient indicates the strength of the association.

For example, a correlation of r = 0.9 suggests a strong, positive association between two variables,
whereas a correlation of r = -0.2 suggest a weak, negative association. A correlation close to zero
suggests no association between two continuous variables.

If we have one dataset {x1,...xn} containing n values and another dataset {y1,...yn} containing n
values then that formula for r is:

Where are defined earlier. as above

( is the sample mean: the term for y is similar)

Find the coefficient of correlation between industrial production and export using the
following data

Production (x) 55 56 58 59 60 60 62
 Export (y) 35 38 37 39 44 43 44

First calculate the mean μx and μy. Create the following table.

No x Y x- 58.6 y- 40 (x- 58.6) (y- 40) (x-58.6)^2 (y- 40)^2

1 55 35 -3.6 -5 18 12.96 25
2 56 38 -2.6 -2 5.2 6.76 4
3 58 37 -0.6 -3 1.8 0.36 9
4 59 39 0.4 -1 -0.4 0.16 1
5 60 44 1.4 4 5.6 1.96 16
6 60 43 1.4 3 4.2 1.96 9
7 62 44 3.4 4 13.6 11.56 16
Sum 410 280 48 35.72 80

μx = 410/7 = 58.6 μy= 280/7 = 40 .SQRT(48) = 5.977 SQRT(80) = 8.9

Hence, r = 48/( 5.977x8.9) = 0.9

Calculate the correlation coefficient for the following data.

X 65 66 67 67 68 69 70 72
Y 67 68 65 68 72 72 69 71

Regression:

Regression analysis helps one understand how the dependent variable changes when any the
independent variable changes. In the case of simple regression, the formulas for the least squares
estimates are y=μy - m μx , where m = ∑ [(xi - μx) ((yi – μy)]/ ∑ (xi - μx)2

Exercise
1. Obtain the mean number of bags sold by a shopkeeper on 6 consecutive days from the following
table
Days Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
No. of bags sold 55 32 30 25 10 20
2. The number of children in 10 families in a locality are 2, 4, 3, 4, 1, 6, 4, 5, x, 5. Find x. if the mean
number of children in a family is 4
3. The mean weight of 6 boys in a group is 48 kg. The individual weights of 5 of them are 50kg,
45kg, 50kg, 42kg and 40kg. Find the weight of the sixth boy.
4. The arithmetic mean of a group of 75 observations was calculated as 27. It was later found that
one observation was wrongly read as 43 instead of the correct value 53.Obtain the correct arithmetic
mean of the data.
5. The total marks obtained by 40 students in an examination are given below. Find the mean.
Marks 150-200 200-250 250-300 300-350 350-400 400-450 450 - 500
Students 2 3 12 10 4 6 3

Exercise
1. Find the median of the following: (i) 18,12,51,32,106,92,58 (ii) 28,7,15,3, 14,18,46,59, 1,2,9,21
2. Find the median for the following frequency table.
Value 12 13 15 19 22 23
Frequency 4 2 4 4 1 5
3. Find the median for the following data.
Height (ft) 5-10 10-15 15-20 20-25 25-30
No of trees 4 3 10 8 5
4. Find the median for the following data.
Age group 0-9 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69
No. of persons 4 6 10 11 12 6 1
5. Calculate the median for the following data
Class interval 1 - 5 6 - 10 11 - 15 16 - 20 21 - 25 26 - 30 31 - 35
Frequency 1 18 25 26 7 2 1
6. The following table gives the distribution of the average weekly wages of 800 workers in a
factory. Calculate the median for the data given below.
Wages( in 100s) 20 - 25 25 - 30 30 - 35 35 - 40 40 - 45 45 - 50 50 - 55 55 - 60
No. of persons 50 70 100 180 150 120 70 60

Exercise
1. The marks obtained by 15 students of a class are given below. Find the modal marks.
42,45,47,49,52,65,65,71,71,72,75,82,72,47,72
2. Calculate the mode of the following data.
Size of shoe 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
No. of Pairs sold 15 17 13 21 18 16 11
3. The age (in years) of 150 patients getting medical treatment in a hospital in a month are given
below. Obtain its mode.
Age (yrs) 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70
No of patients 12 14 36 50 20 18
4. For the following data obtain the mode.
Weight (in kg) 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60
No of students 5 4 3 18 20 14 8 3
5. The ages of children in a scout camp are 13, 13, 14, 15, 13, 15, 14, 15, 13, 15 years. Find the
mean, median and mode of the data.
6. The following table gives the numbers of branches and number plants in a garden of a school.
Calculate the mean, median and mode of the above data.
No. of branches 2 3 4 5 6
No. of plants 14 21 28 20 17
7. The following table shows the age distribution of cases of a certain disease reported during a year
in a particular city. Obtain the mean, median and mode of the above data.
Age in year 5 - 14 15 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 – 54 55 - 64
No. of cases 6 11 12 10 7 4
8. Find the mean, mode and median of marks obtained by 20 students in a test, as given below.
Marks 0 - 10 10 - 20 20 - 30 30 - 40 40 - 50
No. of students 1 4 5 8 2

Exercise
1. Find the range and coefficient of range of the following data. (i) 59, 46, 30, 23, 27, 40, 52,35, 29
(ii) 41.2, 33.7, 29.1, 34.5, 25.7, 24.8, 56.5, 12.5
2. Calculate the standard deviation of the first 13 natural numbers.
5. Find the standard deviation of the following data(i) 10, 20, 15, 8, 3, 4 (ii) 38, 40, 34 ,31, 28, 26, 34
6. Calculate the standard deviation of the following data.
x 3 8 13 18 23
f 7 10 15 10 8
7. Calculate the variance of the following data
x 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
f 4 4 5 15 8 5 4 5
8. The time (in seconds) taken by a group of people to walk across a pedestrian crossing is given in
the table below. Calculate the variance and standard deviation of the data.
Time (in sec.) 5-10 10-15 15-20 20-25 25-30
No. of people 4 8 ` 15 12 11
9. The marks scored by two students A, B in a class are A - 58, 51, 60, 65 and 66. B 56,87,
88, 46, 43. Who is more consistent?

Exercise
Choose the correct answer.
1. The range of the first 10 prime numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23 , 29 is (A) 28 (B) 26 (C) 29
(D) 27
2. The least value in a collection of data is 14.1. If the range of the collection is 28.4, then the
greatest value of the collection is (A) 42.5 (B) 43.5 (C) 42.4 (D) 42.1
3. The greatest value of a collection of data is 72 and the least value is 28. Then the coefficient of
range is (A) 44 (B) 0.72 (C) 0.44 (D) 0.28
4 For a collection of 11 items, Rx = 132, then the arithmetic mean is (A) 11 (B) 12 (C) 14 (D) 13
5. For any collection of n items, R(x - x) = (A) Rx (B) x (C) nx (D) 0
6. For any collection of n items, (Rx) - x = (A) nx (B) (n - 2)x (C) (n - 1)x (D) 0
7. If t is the standard deviation of x, y. z, then the standard deviation of x + 5, y + 5, z + 5 is (A) t (B)
t + 5 (C) t (D) x y z
8. If the standard deviation of a set of data is 1.6, then the variance is (A) 0.4 (B) 2.56 (C) 1.96 (D)
0.04
9. If the variance of a data is 12.25, then the S.D is (A) 3.5 (B) 3 (C) 2.5 (D) 3.25
10. Variance of the first 11 natural numbers is (A) 5 (B) 10 (C) 5 2 (D) 10
11. The variance of 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 is (A) 10 (B) 10 (C) 5 (D) 0
12. If the variance of 14, 18, 22, 26, 30 is 32, then the variance of 28, 36,44,52,60 is (A) 64 (B) 128
(C) 32 2 (D) 32
13. Standard deviation of a collection of data is 2 2 . If each value is multiplied by 3, then the
standard deviation of the new data is (A) 12 (B) 4 2 (C) 6 2 (D) 9 2
14. Mean and standard deviation of a data are 48 and 12 respectively. The coefficient of variation is
(A) 42 (B) 25 (C) 28 (D) 48
PROBABILITY
Classical definition of probability
If an event has n possible outcomes and if m of them are favourable to the event, then, the probability
of the event A, denoted by P(A), is m/n.
The probability of an event A lies in the range 0 to 1. The probability of the sure event is 1. That is
P(S) = 1. The probability of an impossible event is 0. That is P(z) = 0. The probability that the event
A will not occur is given by P( A ) = P(A’) = (n-m)/n. So, P(A) + P( A ) = 1 or P( A ) =1-P(A)
If A and B are independent, since, A = 1-A, it follows that the events A and B are also independent.
Example
A fair die is rolled. Find the probability of getting (i) the number 4 (ii) an even number
(iii) a prime factor of 6 (iv) a number greater than 4.
Solution In rolling a die, the sample space S = {1,2,3,4,5,6} or ` n(S) = 6.
(i) There is only one way of getting 4. So, probability of getting 4 =1/6
(ii) The set of even numbers, B = {2,4,6} ` n(B) = 3. So, probability of getting an even number =3/6
(iii)The prime factor of 6, C = {2,3} ` n(C) = 2. So, probability of getting a prime factor of 6 is =2/6
(iv) Let D be the set of numbers > 4. Then D = {5,6} n(D) = 2. )So, the probability of getting a
number greater than 4 is 2/6.
Example
In tossing a fair coin twice, find the probability of getting (i) two heads (ii) atleast one head (iii)
exactly one tail
Solution In tossing a coin twice, the possibilities are S = {HH, HT, TH, TT} or n(S) = 4.
(i) Let A be the event of getting two heads. Then A = { HH }. Thus, n(A) = 1. P(A) = 1/4
(ii) Let B be the event of getting at least one head. Then B = { HH, HT, TH }. Thus, n(B) = 3.
` P(B) = 3/4
(iii) Let C be the event of getting exactly one tail. Then C = { HT, TH } Thus, n(C) = 2.
P(C) = 2/4 = 1/2
Example
An integer is chosen from the first twenty natural numbers. What is the probability that it is a prime
number?
Solution Here S = {1, 2, 3,,,,, 20 } So, n(S) = 20.
The set of prime numbers in 1-20 A = {2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19}. n(A) = 8. Hence, P(A) = 8/20 =2/5
Example
There are 7 defective items in a sample of 35 items. Find the probability that an item chosen at
random is non-defective.
Solution Total number of items n (S) = 35. No. of defective items = 7. So, no. of non-defective
items, n(A) = 35 - 7 = 28. Probability = 2/8/35 =4/5
Example
Two unbiased dice are rolled once. Find the probability of getting (i) a sum 8 (ii) a doublet (iii) a
sum greater than 8.
Solution When two dice are thrown, the sample space n(S) =6 x 6= 36 = {(1,1).(1,2),...(1,6). (2,1),
(2,2), ...(2,6),....(6,1), (6,2),,, (6,6)}
(i) To get a sum of 8, the possibilities are A = {(2, 6), (3, 5), (4, 4), (5, 3), (6, 2)}. Or n(A) = 5.
Hence, P(A) = 5/36
(ii) Let B be the event of getting a doublet. Then B = {(1,1), (2,2), (3,3), (4,4), (5,5), (6,6)}.
Thus, n(B) = 6. P(B) = 6/36 =1/6
(iii) Let C be the event of getting a sum greater than 8. Then, C = {(3,6), (4,5), (4,6), (5,4), (5,5),
(5,6), (6,3), (6,4), (6,5), (6,6)}. Thus, n(C) = 10. P(C) = 10/36 =5/18
Example
From a well shuffled pack of 52 playing cards, one card is drawn at random. Find the probability of
getting (i) a king (ii) a black king (iii) a spade card (iv) a diamond 10.
Solution Now, n(S) = 52.
(i) Let A be the event of drawing a king card. Then n(A) = 4. P(A) = 4/52 =1/13
(ii) Let B be the event of drawing a black king card Thus, n(B) = 2. ` P(B) = 2/52=1/26
(iii) Let C be the event of drawing a spade card Thus, n(C) = 13. P(C) = 13/52 =1/4
(iv) Let D be the event of drawing a diamond 10 card.Thus, n(D) = 1.P(D) = 1/52
Example
There are 20 boys and 15 girls in a class of 35 students . A student is chosen at random.
Find the probability that the chosen student is a (i) boy (ii) girl.
Solution Let S be the sample space of the class. Let B and G be the events of selecting a boy and a
girl respectively. n(S) = 35, n(B) = 20 and n(G) = 15.
(i) Probability of choosing a boy is P(B) = 20/35 = 4/7
(ii) Probability of choosing a girl is P(G) = 15/35 =3/7

Example
The probability that it will rain on a particular day is 0.76. What is the probability that it will not rain
on that day?
Solution Let A be the event that it will rain. Then A is the event that it will not rain.
Given that P(A) = 0.76. Thus, P(A) = 1 - 0.76 a P(A) + P(A) = 1
The probability that it will not rain is 0.24.
Example
A bag contains 5 red balls and some blue balls. If the probability of drawing a blue ball from the bag
is thrice that of drawing a red ball, then find the number of blue balls in the bag.
Solution Let the number of blue balls be x.
` Total number of balls, n(S) = 5 + x.
Let B be the event of drawing a blue ball and R be the event of drawing a red ball.
Given P(B) = 3P(R)
Or n(B)/n(S) =n(R)/n(S) or x/(5+x) = 3x 5 /(5+x) or x = 3x 5 =15
Thus, number of blue balls = 15.
Example
If A is an event of a random experiment such that
P(A) : P(A) = 7 :12,then find P(A).
Answer P(A) = 7/19. Solution left to the students.
Exercise
1. A ticket is drawn from a bag containing 100 tickets. The tickets are numbered from one to
hundred. What is the probability of getting a ticket with a number divisible by 10?
2. A die is thrown twice. Find the probability of getting a total of 9.
3. Two dice are thrown together. Find the probability that the two digit number formed with the two
numbers turning up is divisible by 3.
4. Three rotten eggs are mixed with 12 good ones. One egg is chosen at random. What is the
probability of choosing a rotten egg?
5. Two coins are tossed together. What is the probability of getting at most one head.
6. One card is drawn randomly from a well shuffled deck of 52 playing cards. Find the probability
that the drawn card is (i) a Diamond (ii) not a Diamond (iii) not an Ace.
7. Three coins are tossed simultaneously. Find the probability of getting (i) at least one head (ii)
exactly two tails (iii) at least two heads.
8. A bag contains 6 white balls numbered from 1 to 6 and 4 red balls numbered from 7 to 10. A ball
is drawn at random. Find the probability of getting (i) an even-numbered ball (ii) a white ball.
9. A number is selected at random from integers 1 to 100. Find the probability that it is (i) a perfect
square (ii) not a perfect cube.
10. For a sightseeing trip, a tourist selects a country randomly from Argentina, Bangladesh, China,
Angola, Russia and Algeria. What is the probability that the name of the selected country will begin
with A ?
11. A box contains 4 Green, 5 Blue and 3 Red balls. A ball is drawn at random. Find the probability
that the selected ball is (i) Red in colour (ii) not Green in colour.
12. 20 cards are numbered from 1 to 20. One card is drawn at random. What is the probability that
the number on the card is (i) a multiple of 4 (ii) not a multiple of 6.
13. A two digit number is formed with the digits 3, 5 and 7. Find the probability that the number so
formed is greater than 57 (repetition of digits is not allowed).
14. Three dice are thrown simultaneously. Find the probability of getting the same number on all the
three dice.
15. Two dice are rolled and the product of the outcomes (numbers) are found. What is the probability
that the product so found is a prime number?
16. A jar contains 54 marbles each of which is in one of the colours blue, green and white. The
probability of drawing a blue marble is 1/3 and the probability of drawing a green marble is 4/9.
How many white marbles does the jar contain?
17. A bag consists of 100 shirts of which 88 are good, 8 have minor defects and 4 have major
defects. A trader A will accept only the shirt which are good, but the trader B will not accept the
shirts which have major defects. One shirt is drawn at random. What is the probability that it is
acceptable by (i) A (ii) B ?
18. A bag contains 12 balls out of which x balls are white. (i) If one ball is drawn at random, what is
the probability that it will be a white ball. (ii) If 6 more white balls are put in the bag and if the
probability of drawing a white ball will be twice that of in (i), then find x.
19. Piggy bank contains 100 fifty-paise coins, 50 one-rupee coins, 20 two-rupees coins and 10 five-
rupees coins. One coin is drawn at random. Find the probability that the drawn coin (i) will be a
fifty-paise coin (ii) will not be a five-rupees coin.
20. X speaks the truth in 95% of the cases and Y in 90% of the cases. In what percentage of the cases
are they likely to contradicteach other in stating the same fact?
21.Three groups of children contain respectively 3 girls and 1 boy, 2girls and 2 boys and one girl and
3 boys. One child is selected at random form each group. Show that the chance that the 3 selected
consist of 1 girl and 2 boys is 13/32.
22.A box contains 4 bad and 6 good tubes. Two are drawn out from the box at a time. One of them is
tested and found to be good. What is the probability that the other one is also good?
23.A is known to hit the target in 2 out of 5 shots, whereas B is known to hit the target in 3 out of 4
shots. Find the probability of the target being hit when both try.

Addition theorem on probability PROVE

IfA and B are two independent events, then prove that A and B bar are also independent.

If the subsets A and B correspond to two events A and B of a random experiment and
if the set S corresponds to the sample space S of the experiment, then,
P(A ∪B) = P(A) + P(B) - P(A ∩ B) . This is known as the addition theorem on probability.
(i) The event A , B is said to occur if the event A occurs or the event B occurs or both
(ii) If A and B are mutually exclusive events, then P(A∪B) = P(A) + P(B) as P(A ∩ B) = 0.

Example
Three coins are tossed simultaneously. Using addition theorem on probability, find the probability
that either exactly two tails or at least one head turn up.
Solution Now the sample space S = "HHH,HHT,HTH,HTT,TTT,TTH,THT,THH,. Hence, n(S) = 8.
Let A be the event of getting exactly two tails. Thus, A = "HTT,TTH,THT , and hence n(A) = 3.
` P(A) = 3/8.
Let B be the event of getting at least one head. Thus, B = "HTT,THT,TTH,HHT,HTH,THH,HHH, and
hence n(B) = 7.
P(B) = 7/8.

Now, the events A and B are not mutually exclusive. Since A ∩ B = A, P(A∩ B) = P(A) = 3/8
∴ P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B) - P(A ∩ B)
Thus P(A ∪ B) = 3/8 +7/8 -3/8 =7/8
Example
A die is thrown twice. Find the probability that at least one of the two throws comes up with the
number 5 (use addition theorem).
Solution In rolling a die twice, the size of the sample space , n(S) = 36.
Let A be the event of getting 5 in the first throw. ∴ A = {(5,1), (5,2), (5,3), (5,4), (5,5), (5,6)}.
Thus, n(A) = 6 , and P(A) = 6/36 =1/6
Let B be the event of getting 5 in the second throw. ∴ B = {(1,5), (2,5), (3,5), (4,5), (5,5), (6,5)}.
Thus, n(B) = 6 and P(B) = 6/36 =1/6 .
A and B are not mutually exclusive events , since A ∩ B = {(5,5)}. ∴ n(A ∴B) = 1 and P(A ∴ B) = 1/36

∴ By addition theorem, P(A∪ B) = P(A) + P(B) - P(A ∩ B) = 6/36+6/36 -1/36 = 11/36.

Example
The probability that a girl will be selected for admission in a medical college is 0.16. The probability
that she will be selected for admission in an engineering college is 0.24 and the probability that she
will be selected in both, is 0.11 (i) Find the probability that she will be selected in at least one of the
two colleges. (ii) Find the probability that she will be selected either in a medical college only or in
an engineering college only.
Solution Let A be the event of getting selected in a medical college and B be the event of
getting selected for admission in an engineering college.
P(A) = 0.16, P(B) = 0.24 and P(A ∩ B) = 0.11
(i) P (she will be selected for admission in at least one of the two colleges) is P(A∪ B) = P(A) + P(B)
- P(A ∩ B) = 0.16 + 0.24 - 0.11 = 0.29
(ii) P(she will be selected for admission in only one of the two colleges)
= P (only A or only B) = P(A ∩ not B) + P(not A ∩ B)
= [P(A) - P(A ∩ B)] +[P(B) - P(A ∩ B)]
= (0.16 - 0.11) +(0.24 - 0.11) = 0.18.
Example
A letter is chosen at random from the letters of the word “ENTERTAINMENT”. Find the probability
that the chosen letter is a vowel or T. (repetition of letters is allowed)
Solution There are 13 letters in the word ENTERTAINMENT. ∴ n(S) = 13.
Let A be the event of getting a vowel.
∴ n(A) = 5. Hence, P(A) = 5/13
Let B be the event of getting the letter T. ∴ n(B) = 3 Hence, P(B) = 3/13
Then P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B) ∵ A and B are mutually exclusive events
= 5/13 + 3/13 = 8/13
Example
A bag contains 10 white, 5 black, 3 green and 2 red balls. One ball is drawn at random. Find the
probability that the ball drawn is white or black or green.
Solution Let S be the sample space. ∴ n(S) = 20.
Let W, B and G be the events of selecting a white, black and green ball respectively.
Probability of getting a white ball, P(W ) = n(W) /n(S) = 10/20 =1/2
Probability of getting a black ball, P(B ) = n(B) /n(S) = 5/20 =1/4
Probability of getting a green ball, P(G ) = n(G) /n(S) = 3/20
Probability of getting a white or black or green ball = P(W∪ B ∪ G) = P(W) + P(B) + P(G)
Because W, B and G are mutually exclusive.
= 10/20 + 5/20 + 3/20 = 18/20 =9/10

Exercise
1. If a die is rolled twice, find the probability of getting an even number in the first time or a total of
8.
2. One number is chosen randomly from the integers 1 to 50. Find the probability that it is divisible
by 4 or 6.
3. A bag contains 50 bolts and 150 nuts. Half of the bolts and half of the nuts are rusted. If an item is
chosen at random, find the probability that it is rusted or that it is a bolt.
4. Two dice are rolled simultaneously. Find the probability that the sum of the numbers on the faces
is neither divisible by 3 nor by 4.
5. A basket contains 20 apples and 10 oranges out of which 5 apples and 3 oranges are rotten. If a
person takes out one fruit at random, find the probability that the fruit is either an apple or a good
fruit.
6. In a class, 40% of the students participated in Mathematics-quiz, 30% in Science-quiz and 10% in
both the quiz programmes. If a student is selected at random from the class, find the probability that
the student participated in Mathematics or Science or both quiz programmes.
7. A card is drawn at random from a well-shuffled deck of 52 cards. Find the probability that it will
be a spade or a king.
8. A box contains 10 white, 6 red and 10 black balls. A ball is drawn at random. Find the probability
that the ball drawn is white or red.
9. A two digit number is formed with the digits 2, 5, 9 (repetition is allowed). Find the probability
that the number is divisible by 2 or 5.
10. Each individual letter of the word “ACCOMMODATION” is written in a piece of paper, and all
13 pieces of papers are placed in a jar. If one piece of paper is selected at random from the jar, find
the probability that (i) the letter ‘A’ or ‘O’ is selected. (ii) the letter ‘M’ or ‘C’ is selected.
11. The probability that a new car will get an award for its design is 0.25, the probability that it will
get an award for efficient use of fuel is 0.35 and the probability that it will get both the awards is
0.15. Find the probability that (i) it will get atleast one of the two awards (ii) it will get only one of
the awards.

multiplication of probabilities - (10-02-12-pp 299-316)

Conditional probability – Independent events(11-02-3-pp 169-194).
 Next we will look at Venn Diagrams.
In a Venn Diagram the box represents
the entire sample space.
Members
Members
that fit
that fit
Event A
Event B
go in this A B go in this
circle.
circle.