Probability worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.A council surveyed 140 households about recycling. 85 of the households are in Zone A. 52 of the Zone A households recycle glass. 21 of the Zone B households do not recycle glass. Work out the probability that a household, chosen at random from the 140, recycles glass. Give your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.

2.On the probability scale from 0 to 1, which word best describes an event with probability 0.9?

3.A fair four-sided dice, numbered 1 to 4, is rolled twice. Every outcome is listed as an ordered pair, first roll then second roll, such as (2, 3). Work out how many different outcomes are in the list.

4.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.

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

6.On the probability scale from 0 (impossible) to 1 (certain), evens is exactly halfway. An event is 3/10 more likely than evens. Work out the probability of that event, giving your answer as a decimal.

7.A market stall sells umbrellas. Over the last 250 days, it rained on 70 of them. Using this as an estimate of the probability of rain, work out how many rainy days would be expected in the next 365 days.

8.A fair six-sided dice is rolled 120 times. Work out how many of the rolls you would expect to give a score of 3 or more.

9.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?

10.The probability that a machine completes a task successfully is 0.85. Work out the probability that the machine does not complete the task successfully.

11.A charity fundraiser runs a game using a spinner with 5 equal sections numbered 1 to 5. A player wins a £4 prize if the spinner lands on 5, and wins nothing otherwise. It costs £1 to play, and the game is played 100 times during the fundraiser. Decide which statement correctly describes the game.

12.A drawing pin is dropped many times and lands either point up or point down. The relative frequency of landing point up is recorded as the experiment goes on: after 50 drops it is 0.720, after 200 drops it is 0.665, and after 1000 drops it is 0.638. The pin is to be dropped a further 2000 times. Work out the best estimate of the number of times it will land point up.

13.A card is taken at random from an ordinary pack of 52 playing cards. The pack contains 4 aces and 4 kings. Work out the probability that the card is an ace or a king.

14.The probability that a pupil chosen at random has a nut allergy is 1/10. There are 30 pupils in a class. Work out how many of the 30 pupils would be expected to have a nut allergy.

15.The probability that Priya's dentist appointment overruns is 0.35. Work out the probability that it does not overrun.