Probability worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.A machine makes 4000 light bulbs a day and runs 5 days a week. Two inspectors test bulbs from this machine. Inspector A tests 40 bulbs and finds 4 faulty. Inspector B tests 500 bulbs and finds 30 faulty. Using the better of the two estimates, work out how many faulty bulbs the machine is expected to make in one week.

2.A bag contains 5 red counters and 5 green counters. Three counters are taken out one at a time and are not put back. Work out the probability that all three counters are red.

3.At a school fête, a tombola stall costs £1.50 to play. The probability of winning is 0.2, and the prize is worth £6. Work out the stall's expected profit, on average, from each game played.

4.A charity raffle has three types of ticket: winning, near-miss and losing, and every ticket is exactly one of these. The probability that a ticket is winning is 1/8 and the probability that it is a near-miss is 1/4. Work out the probability that a ticket is losing.

5.A red dice and a blue dice are rolled. Both dice are ordinary and fair. Work out the probability of getting a 1 on the red dice and a 2 on the blue dice.

6.The universal set is {1, 2, 3, ..., 15}. A = {multiples of 3}. Work out n(A′), the number of elements not in A.

7.The probability that Leo wakes up before his alarm is 0.35. The probability that his younger sister wakes up before her alarm, independently of Leo, is 0.28. Work out the probability that neither of them wakes up before their alarm.

8.A red fair dice and a blue fair dice are rolled together. Every outcome is listed as an ordered pair, red score then blue score. Work out the probability that the red score is less than the blue score.

9.Kwame flips a fair coin three times and writes down what it lands on each time. Work out the probability that it lands on heads all three times.

10.A fair six-sided dice is rolled once. Work out the probability that the score is greater than 4.

11.Two ordinary fair dice are rolled and the two scores are multiplied together. Work out the probability that the product is odd.

12.In a board game Mia moves forward by the total of two ordinary fair dice. Work out the probability that her total is 7. Give your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.

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

14.A raffle sells 400 tickets at 50p each. There is one prize of £45. Aisha buys 8 tickets. Work out how much money Aisha should expect to lose from playing, giving your answer in pounds.

15.An ordinary fair dice is rolled once. Set A is the set of even scores and set B is the set of scores greater than 4. Work out the probability that the score rolled is in set A or in set B or in both.