Discrete Probability

Example

A six-sided fair die whose sides are labeled 1,2,3,4,5,6 is rolled.

How many ways an arbitrary number can appear? (six: 1,2,3,4,5,6)

How many ways an even number can appear? (three: 2,4,6)

The probability of getting an even number is 3/6 =1/2

1) Experiment

An experiment is a process that yields an outcome.

Example

Randomly selecting 5 microprocessors from a lot of 1000

microprocessors.

Selecting a newborn child at Sultanah Aminah Hospital.

Rolling a six-sided die

2) Event

An event is an outcome or combination of outcomes from an experiment.

Example

Obtaining a 4 when rolling a six-sided die.

Finding no defective microprocessors out of five randomly chosen from a

lot of 1000.

Selecting a newborn female child at Sultanah Aminah Hospital.

Example 1

3 fair dice are rollled.

What is the probability that the sum of the numbers on the dice is 4 or 17?

The size of sample space is,

6x6x6 = 216

3 possible ways to obtain the sum of 4,

(1,1,2), (1,2,1), (2,1,1)

The probability is, 3 1

=
216 72

Example 2

5 microprocessors are randomly selected from a lot of 1000

microprocessors among which 20 are defective.

Find the probability of obtaining no defective microprocessors.

There are C(1000,5) ways to select 5 microprocessors among 1000.

There are C(980,5) ways to select 5 good microprocessors since there are
1000-20=980 good microprocessors .

The probability is,

980∁ 5
=
1000∁ 5

C (980,5)
 0.903735781
C (1000,5)
Example 3

There are exactly 3 red balls in a bucket of 15 balls. If we choose 4 balls

at random, what is the probability that we do not choose a red ball?

There are C(15,4) ways to select 4 balls among 15.

If we do not choose a red ball, there are C(12,4) ways to select 4 balls
among the remaining 12 balls.

The probability is,

C (12,4) 495 33
 
C (15,4) 1365 91

Example 4

There are 5 red balls and 4 white balls in a box.

4 balls are selected at random from these balls.

Find the probability that 2 of the selected balls will be red and 2 will be
white.

The size of sample space is C(9,4)

Select 2 red balls, C(5,2) ways

Select 2 white balls, C(4,2) ways

The probability is,

C (5,2).C (4,2) (10)(6) 10

 
C (9,4) 126 21