Key point 17.
3
The complement of an event is the event “not " or .
The equation in Key point 17.3 is very useful because sometimes the complement is much simpler to
evaluate than the event itself.
WORKED EXAMPLE 17.4
A fair dice is rolled five times. Find the probability of getting at least one six.
There are several possible ways to get at least one six
(you could get or ).
But the complement of the event ‘at least one six’ is ‘no
sixes’, which can happen in only one way: if each dice
shows ‘not a six’.
The five rolls are independent, so you need to multiply
five probabilities of ‘not a six’.
Tip
The complement of an event can be represented on a Venn diagram, which you may have met
in your previous studies (and will cover in more detail in Student Book 2). For example, if it is
known that of people have blue eyes and of people have brown eyes, then the event
‘a person has neither blue nor brown eyes’ is the complement of the event ‘a person has blue
eyes or brown eyes’, and is represented by the shaded region on this Venn diagram:
The probability of this event is:
P(a person has neither blue eyes nor brown eyes)
EXERCISE 17A
1 Which of these events are mutually exclusive? For those events that are mutually exclusive, find
.
a On a fair six-sided dice:
i : rolling a multiple of ; : rolling a multiple of .
ii : rolling an even number; : rolling a multiple of .
b One card is selected from a standard pack of cards.
i : selecting a king; : selecting a red card.
ii : selecting an ace; : selecting a spade.
c Two fair dice are rolled and the scores are added.
i : the total is a multiple of ; : the total is less than .
ii : the total is greater than ; : the total is less than .
d A bag contains four green and six yellow balls. A ball is taken out of the bag, its colour noted,
and then returned to the bag. Another ball is then selected.
i : both balls are green; : both balls are yellow.
ii : the first ball is green; : the second ball is green.
e A bag contains four green and six yellow balls. Two balls are taken out without replacement.
i : the first ball is green; : the second ball is green.
ii : both balls are green; : both balls are yellow.
2 Which pairs of events from question 1 are independent? For those that are, calculate
and .
3 Two events, and , have probabilities and .
a Write down an expression for P( and ) in the following situations:
i and are independent
ii and are mutually exclusive.
b If two events are independent, can they also be mutually exclusive?
4 A coin is biased so that the probability of getting tails is . The coin is tossed twice. Find the
probability that:
a the coin shows heads both times
b the coin shows heads at least once.
5 Two fair six-sided dice are rolled. Find the probability that the product of the scores is .
6 Daniel has three blocks with letters , and written on them. He arranges the blocks in a row
randomly.
a Write down all possible arrangements of the three letters.
b Find the probability that the blocks make the word ‘CAT’ or ‘ACT’.
7 A fair six-sided dice is rolled once. Define events as:
: the dice shows an even number; : the dice shows a prime number.
a Find P( and ).
b Determine whether events and are independent.
8 300 students in Years 9, and at a school were asked to say which of Biology, Chemistry and
Physics is their favourite science. The results are shown in this table.
Year Biology Chemistry Physics Total
group
Year 9
Year
10
Year
11
Total
a Find the probability that a randomly chosen student:
i prefers Chemistry
ii is in Year and doesn’t prefer Biology.
b Determine whether the event ‘the student is in Year 9’ and the event ‘the student’s favourite
science is Physics’ are independent.
9 A fair four-sided spinner, with numbers to written on it, is spun three times. Find the probability
of getting either three 1s or three 4s.
10 A fair coin is tossed three times. Determine the probability that it shows:
a three tails
b at least one head.
11 The probability that a student is late for a lesson is , independently of any other students.
a Find the probability that at least one of the students in a class is late.
b Is the assumption of independence reasonable in this case? Explain your answer.
