Probability worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.150 pupils are asked about swimming and cycling, and the results are recorded on a frequency tree. The first pair of branches splits the 150 pupils into 90 who swim and 60 who do not swim. Of the 90 who swim, 54 also cycle. Of the 60 who do not swim, 18 cycle. Work out P(S ∩ C), the probability that a pupil, chosen at random, swims and cycles. Give your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.

2.A spinner is divided into sectors of 144°, 90° and 126°, coloured purple, orange and grey in that order. The spinner is spun 300 times. Work out how many times you would expect it to land on purple.

3.A spinner is divided into sectors of 180°, 120° and 60°, coloured red, blue and green in that order. The spinner is spun 60 times. Work out how many times you would expect it to land on green.

4.The probability that Isla answers a quiz question correctly is 0.8. She answers three questions, and her answers are independent of each other. Work out the probability that she answers all three correctly.

5.Two fair coins are thrown together 400 times. Work out how many of the 400 throws you would expect to give one head and one tail.

6.The probability that it rains in Manchester tomorrow is 1/12. Work out the probability that it does not rain in Manchester tomorrow.

7.A grower knows that the probability that one of their seeds germinates is 0.6. The grower wants to expect 300 of the seeds to germinate. Work out how many seeds the grower should plant.

8.The universal set is {1, 2, 3, ..., 30}. Set A is the set of multiples of 4 between 1 and 30. Work out n(A′), the number of elements not in A.

9.A fair spinner has 10 equal sections, numbered 1 to 10. The spinner is spun 150 times. Work out how many times you would expect it to land on a number greater than 7.

10.At a youth club, 65 members are asked which sports they play. 27 play football, 21 play basketball, and 9 play both. Work out the number of members who play neither sport.

11.A bag contains 3 red counters, 2 blue counters and 2 green counters. One counter is taken at random from the bag. Work out the probability that the counter is red.

12.The probability that the Hughes family go away during the summer holidays is 3/7. Work out the probability that they do not go away during the summer holidays.

13.A sorting office processes 2,000 letters addressed to one postcode area in a week. The probability that a letter is a bill is 0.15. Work out how many of the letters you would expect to be bills.

14.At a summer fair, the probability of winning at the hoopla stall is 6/10 and the probability of winning at the coconut shy is 2/10. Work out how many times as likely a player is to win at the hoopla stall as at the coconut shy.

15.A six-sided dice is rolled 12 times. It lands on a six 4 times. Erin says that the dice must be biased. Which of these is the best comment on Erin's statement?