Questions on Probability 19.
A marble is drawn at random from a box containing 10
1. If three cards are drawn at random from a pack of 52
cards what is the probability that all the three will be
kings?
2. Find the probability that at least one head appears in
two tosses of a coin.
3. A ball is drawn at random from a box containing 6 red
balls, 5 white balls and 3 blue balls. Find the probability
that it is (i) red; (ii) white; (iii) blue, (iv) not red; (v) red
or white.
4. A box contains 8 red and 3 white balls. If 3 balls are
drawn at random, find the probability that (i) all the
three are red; (ii) all three are white; (iii) 2 are red and
1 is white.
5. A bag contains 3 white balls, 4 black balls and 5 red
balls. If 3 balls are drawn at random find the probability
that (I) all 3 are red; (ii) all 3 are black' (iii) 2 are red
and 1 is black; (iv) 1 of each colour.
6. If four coins are tossed, find the probability of the
occurrence of 2 heads and 2 tails.
7. Five cards are drawn from a pack of 52 well shuffled
cards. Find the probability that (i) 4 are aces; (ii) 4
are aces and 1 is a king; (ii) 3 are tens and 2 are
jacks; (iv) at least one face card us obtained.
8. A committee of 4 boys and 3 girls is to be formed by
lots from 8 boys and 5 girls. One of the boys is brother
of one of the girls. Find the probability that both are
included in the committee.
9. Three groups of children contain (i) 3 girls and 1 boy;
(ii) 3 girls and 3 boys; (iii) 2 boys and 1 girl. One child
is selected at random from each group. Find the
probability that the three selected children comprise of
1 girl and 2 boys.
10. Five coins are tossed simultaneously. Find the
probability that all of them do not give heads.
11. If out of 100 tosses of a coin, 56 were heads, find the
probability that a tail appears in the next toss of the
coin.
12. Ninety balls are numbered from 1 to 90. Five balls are
taken at random. What is the probability that there is at
least one ball with a one-digit number?
13. Two dice are thrown. Find the probability that the sum
of the numbers on the uppermost faces is either even
or perfect square.
14. A bag contains 6 red, 5 blue, 3 white and 4 black balls.
A ball is drawn at random. Find the probability that the
ball drawn is red, blue or black.
15. Not scored.
16. One ticket is drawn at random from a lot of 20 tickets
numbered from 1 to 20. What is the probability that the
number on the ticket drawn is divisible by (I) 2 or 3
(ii) 3 or 7
17. A card is drawn from an ordinary deck of 52 well-
shuffled cards. Find the probability that it is (i)
neither red nor an ace; (ii) neither the ten of clubs nor
an ace.
18. In a class of 100 students, 60 drink tea, 50 drink coffee
and 30 drink both tea and coffee. A student from this
class is selected at random. What is the probability that
the student takes (i) at least one of the two drinks,
(ii) only one of the drinks?
red, 30 white, 20 blue and 15 orange marbles. Find the
probability that it is (I) red or orange, (ii) neither red nor
blue, (iii) not blue (iv) white, (v) red, white or blue.
20. Out of 80 students in a class, 30 passed in
Mathematics, 20 passed in Statistics and 10 passed in
both. One student is selected at random. Find the
probability that he has passed, (I) at least in one of the
subjects, (ii) none of the subjects, (iii) only in
Mathematics, (iv) only in Mathematics or only in
Statistics .
21. A die is thrown twice. Find the probability that the score
in the first throw is 6 and the score in the second throw
is 5 or 6.
22. Suppose two dice are cast. Find the probability that the
number on the uppermost face of the first die is even
and that of the second is odd.
23. A fair die is tossed twice. Find the probability of getting
4, 5 or 6 on the first toss and 1, 2, 3, or 4 on the
second toss.
24. A card is drawn at random from a full pack of cards
under the assumption that the card drawn is a spade.
Find the probability that it is a face card i.e. King,
Queen or jack.
25. Two cards are drawn are from a well shuffled deck of
52 cards. Find the probability that they are both aces if
the first card is (i) replaced, (ii) not replaced.
26. One bag contains 4 white and 2 black balls, another
contains 3 white 5 black balls. If one ball is drawn from
each bag. Find the probability that (i) both are white,
(ii) both are black
27. A box contains 8 tickets bearing the numbers 1, 2, 3, 5,
7, 8, 9, 10. One ticket is drawn at random and kept
aside, then the second is drawn. Find the probability
that the both the tickets show odd numbers.
28. P can hit a target 4 times in 5 shots, Q, 3 times in 4
shots and R, twice in 3 shots,. They fire
simultaneously. What is the probability that at least 2
shots hit?
29. A box contains 10 radio valves of which 4 are
defective. Find the probability that if two valves are
taken from the box, they are both defective.
30. A purse contains 2 silver coins and 4 copper coins and
another contains 4 silver coins and 3 copper coins. If a
coin is selected at random from one of the two purses
what the probability that it is a silver coin?
31. The probability that A can solve a problem is 4/5, that B
can solve it is 2/3 and that C can solve it is 3/7. If all of
them try independently, find the probability that the
problem will be solved.
32. The odds that a book will be favourably reviewed by
three independent critics are 3 to 2, 4 to 3 and 2 to 3
respectively. What is the probability that of the three
reviews majority will be favourable?
33. The odds against A solving a problem are 8 to 6 and
odds in favour of B solving the same problem are 14 to
16. If both of them try the problem, what is the
probability that (i) the problem will be solved, (ii) both A
and B will solve the problem?
34. The Probability that a man will be alive after 25 years is
3/5 and the probability that his wife will be alive after 25
years is 2/3. Find the probability that (i) both will be
alive, (ii) only the man will be alive, (iii) only the wife
will be alive, (iv) at least one will be alive.

35. A and B play games of chess. A wins 6, B wins 4 and 2
games are drawn. They, then agree to play 3 more
games. Find the probability that (i) A wins all the 3
games, (ii) 2 of the 3 games end in a draw.
36. The probability that a 50-year old man will be alive at
60 is 0.83 and the probability that a 45-year old woman
will be alive at 55 is 0.87. What is the probability that a
man who is 50 and wife who is 45 will be alive 10 years
hence?
37. There are 50 tickets in a lottery in which there is a first
and a second prize. What is the probability that a man
possessing 5 tickets wins a prize?
38. A man draws from an urn containing two balls, one
white and one black. If he draws a white ball he wins. If
he fails to draw a white ball, the draw is replaced,
another black ball is added and he draws again. If he
fails to draw a white ball in the next draw, the process
is repeated. What are his respective chances of
winning at 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 10th try.
39. An urn contains four white and five black balls, a
second urn contains five white and four black balls.
One ball is transferred from the first to the second urn,
then a ball is drawn from the second urn. What the
probability that it is white?
40. In the example No. 39 suppose that two balls are
transferred from the first to the second urn. Find the
probability that a ball then drawn from the second urn
will be white.
41. Not scored.
42. Not scored.
43. Three units of A, B, C of a factory produce 25%, 25%
and 50"% of its production respectively. If the
percentages of defective items produced by the three
units A, B, C are respectively 1%, 2% and 3% and an
item selected at random is found to be defective, find
the probability that it is produced by the unit (i) A; (ii) B.
44. In a class of 100 students there are 60 boys and 40
girls, 20 boys and 10 girls failed in Mathematics. A roll
number selected at random is found to be that of a
student who has failed in Mathematics. What is the
probability that it is of a girl?
45. The chance that a female worker in a chemical factory
will contract an occupational disease is 0.04 and the
chance for a male worker is 0.06. Out of 1000 workers
in a factory 200 are females. One worker is selected at
random and the worker is found to have contracted the
disease. What is the probability that the worker is a
female?
46. Suppose we have two machines I & II that produce
shoes. Machine I makes 60% of shoes. The remaining
are made by machine II. 10% of the shoes made by
machine I are defective and 20% of the shoes made by
machine II are defective. A shoe was selected at
random and was found to be non-defective. What is
the probability that it was manufactured by machine I?
47. Johnny washes supper dishes twice a week and his
elder brother Frank does them 5 times a week.
Johnny's two days are chosen at random each week.
The probability that Johnny will break one or more
dishes during a washing is 0.1. The probability that
Frank will is 0.02. One evening as the dishes were
being washed their father heard a dish crash, He said.
'Apparently this is Johnny's dish day'. What is the
probability that he was right ?
48. The incidence of Myxoedema (underactive thyroid
gland) among people admitted to hospitals is about 1
in 1500. Doctors often use the 'protein bound iodine
test' to determine whether or not a person has
myxoedema. When the test is used on people who
have myxoedema, it shows the presence of the
disease in 90% of those tested. In the remaining 10%
the test yields a false negative result. When the test is
given to people who do not have myxoedema it show
the absence of the disease in 99% of those tested. In
the remaining 1% the test yields a false positive result.
If the test is used on a hospital patient chosen at
random, and the result is positive indicating that the
patient has myxoedema), what is the probability that
the patient really has myxoedema?
49. A box contains 3 red, 4 green, 2 black and 1 white
marbles. A man is blind folded and asked to select a
marble. If he selects a red marble he gets Rs. 3, for a
green one he wins Rs.2, for a black one Rs. 7 and for a
white one Rs. 10. What is his mathematical
expectation?
50. A die is tossed twice. If it shows the same number
twice, Mr. A gets Rs. 100, otherwise he loses Rs. 5.
What is the mathematical expectation of Mr. A?
51. A wheel of fortune at an amusement park is divided
into five colours, red, blue, green, yellow, brown. The
probabilities of the spinner landing in any of these
colors are 3/10, 3/10, 2/10, 1/10, 1/10 respectively. A
player can win Rs. 5 if it stops on red, Rs. 3 if it stops
on blue, Rs. 4 if it stops on green, and lose Rs. 2 if it
stops on yellow and Re. 1 if it stops on brown. M wants
to try her luck. What is her mathematical expectation?
52. Three envelopes are placed on a table. One contains a
Rs. 10 note, the second a Rs. 20 note and the third
Rs. 50 note. A and B decide to play the following game.
A will guess what is in the middle envelope. If he
guesses correctly he gets the content of the envelope.
Otherwise he pays B the amount equal to the amount
in the envelope. What is his mathematical expectation
if he guesses that the middle envelope contains Rs. 50
note?
53. A bag contains 10 coins. Of these 4 are 25 p. coins, 5
are 20 p. coins and one X p. coin. A person draws out
a coin from this bag and his mathematical expectation
is given to be 25 p. Find the value of X.
54. If a man purchases a raffle ticket he can win a first
prize of Rs. 5000 or a second prize of Rs. 2000 with
probabilities .001 and 0.003. What should be a fair
price to pay for the ticket.
55. A bag contains 2 white balls and 3 black balls. Four
persons A, B, C, D in that order each draws one ball
and does not replace it. The first to draw a white ball
receives Rs. 10. Determine their expectations.
56. A coin is tossed until a head appears. What is the
expected number of tosses?
57. In a business venture a man can make a profit of Rs.
2, 000 with a probability of 0.4 or have a loss of Rs.
1000 with a probability of 0.6. What is his expected
profit.