Probability

Many events can't be predicted with total certainty. The best we can say is how likely they are to happen, using the idea of probability.

Tossing a Coin

When a coin is tossed, there are two possible outcomes:

Heads (H) or
Tails (T)

• the probability of the coin landing H is ½
• the probability of the coin landing T is ½

Throwing Dice

When a single die is thrown, there are six possible outcomes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

The probability of any one of them is 16

Probability

Probability of an event happening = Number of ways it can happen Total number of outcomes

Example: the chances of rolling a "4" with a die

Number of ways it can happen: 1 (there is only 1 face with a "4" on it)

Total number of outcomes: 6 (there are 6 faces altogether)

So the probability = 1 6

Example: there are 5 marbles in a bag: 4 are blue, and 1 is red. What is the probability that a blue marble gets picked?

Number of ways it can happen: 4 (there are 4 blues)

Total number of outcomes: 5 (there are 5 marbles in total)

So the probability = 4 5 = 0.8

Probability Line

We can show probability on a Probability Line:

Probability is always between 0 and 1

Probability is Just a Guide

Probability does not tell us exactly what will happen, it is just a guide

Example: toss a coin 100 times, how many Heads will come up?

Probability says that heads have a ½ chance, so we can expect 50 Heads.

But when we actually try it we might get 48 heads, or 55 heads . or anything really, but in most cases it will be a number near 50.

Words

Some words have special meaning in Probability:

Experiment: a repeatable procedure with a set of possible results.

Example: Throwing dice

We can throw the dice again and again, so it is repeatable.

The set of possible results from any single throw is

Outcome: A possible result.

Example: "6" is one of the outcomes of a throw of a die.

Trial: A single performance of an experiment.

Example: I conducted a coin toss experiment. After 4 trials I got these results:

Three trials had the outcome "Head", and one trial had the outcome "Tail"

Sample Space: all the possible outcomes of an experiment.

Example: choosing a card from a deck

There are 52 cards in a deck (not including Jokers)

So the Sample Space is all 52 possible cards:

The Sample Space is made up of Sample Points:

Sample Point: just one of the possible outcomes

Example: Deck of Cards

• the 5 of Clubs is a sample point
• the King of Hearts is a sample point

"King" is not a sample point. There are 4 Kings, so that is 4 different sample points.

Example: Throwing dice

There are 6 different sample points in that sample space.

Event: one or more outcomes of an experiment

Example Events:

An event can be just one outcome:

• Getting a Tail when tossing a coin
• Rolling a "5"

An event can include more than one outcome:

• Choosing a "King" from a deck of cards (any of the 4 Kings)
• Rolling an "even number" (2, 4 or 6)

Hey, let's use those words, so you get used to them:

Example: Alex wants to see how many times a "double" comes up when throwing 2 dice.

The Sample Space is all possible Outcomes (36 Sample Points):

The Event Alex is looking for is a "double", where both dice have the same number. It is made up of these 6 Sample Points:

These are Alex's Results:

After 100 Trials, Alex has 19 "double" Events . is that close to what you would expect?