Probability worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.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.

2.A = {factors of 12} and B = {factors of 18}. Work out n(A ∩ B), the number of elements in both sets.

3.Isla travels to school by bus, by bike, on foot or by car, and never by more than one of these on the same day. The probability that she travels by bus is 0.2, the probability that she travels by bike is 0.3 and the probability that she travels on foot is 0.1. Work out the probability that she travels to school by bus, by bike or on foot.

4.A library recorded loans for 250 books over a week, using a frequency tree. The first branch splits the books into 160 fiction and 90 non-fiction. Of the fiction books, 112 were returned on time and the rest were returned late. All the non-fiction books were returned on time. Work out the probability that a book, chosen at random from the 250, was returned late. Give your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.

5.Two ordinary fair dice are rolled and the two scores are added together. Work out the probability that the total is a prime number.

6.A machine produces bolts. In a sample of 250 bolts, 15 are faulty. Work out the relative frequency of a bolt being faulty, giving your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.

7.Two games at a school fete are played independently. The probability of winning game X is 3/8. The probability of winning game Y is 0.4. Which statement correctly compares the two games?

8.At a leisure centre, 50 members are asked which activities they do. 32 do yoga, 24 do pilates, and 11 do both. Work out how many members do yoga only, and not pilates.

9.A fair six-sided dice is rolled 300 times. Work out how many more times you would expect it to land on an even number than on a six.

10.The probability that a plant grown from a seed packet germinates is 7/10. Work out the probability that it does not germinate.

11.Ellie drops a bottle top and records whether it lands open end up. In her first 20 drops it lands open end up 13 times. She carries on, and after 200 drops in total it has landed open end up 84 times. Work out the best estimate of the probability that the bottle top lands open end up.

12.A factory finds that the probability a randomly chosen light bulb is defective is 0.035. In a batch of 4,000 bulbs, work out how many bulbs you would expect to work correctly.

13.A bag contains 2 white counters and 8 black counters. One counter is taken at random from the bag. Work out the probability that the counter is not black.

14.A bag contains 5 yellow marbles and 3 blue marbles. Noah takes a marble at random, notes its colour and puts it back in the bag. He then takes a second marble at random. Work out the probability that the first marble is yellow and the second marble is blue.

15.A café offers 3 types of sandwich, cheese, ham and egg, and 4 types of drink, tea, coffee, juice and water. A customer chooses one sandwich and one drink at random. Work out the probability that the customer chooses egg and water.