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Probability Formulae

Show that you know which formula to use for each probability question. A drag and drop challenge.

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\(P(A) = \frac{n(A)}{n(U)}\)

\(P(A)+P(A')=1\)

\(P(A \cup B)=P(A) + P(B) - P(A \cap B)\)

\(P(A \cup B)=P(A) + P(B)\)

\(P(A|B) = \frac{P(A\cap B}{P(B)}\)

\(P(A \cap B) = P(A)P(B)\)

Drag each formula above onto the problem they can help solve.

There are 25 students in the class.
Five of these students are in a band.
If a student is picked at random from the class, what is the probability that they are in the band?

The probability that the train will be on time is 0.7
What is the probability the train will not be on time?

What is the probability of getting a head or a six when rolling a fair dice and tossing a normal, unbiased coin.

The probability that a student at a school is under 13 is 0.3
The probability that a student at the same school is over 16 is 0.2
If a student is picked at random from the school, what is the probability that they are either under 13 or over 16?

There are 10 red and 5 blue watches in a bag.
5 of the red watches are faulty.
3 of the blue watches are faulty.
A watch is picked out of the bag and is seen to be faulty. What is the probability that it is red given that it is faulty?

The probability that it will rain tomorrow is 0.7
The probability that a student in this class will have their birthday tomorrow is 0.45
What is the probability that both of these events will happen?

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"I used this with my bottom set in year 9. To engage them I used their name and favorite football team (or pop group) instead of the school name. For homework, I asked each student to find a definition for the key words they had been given (once they had fun trying to guess the answer) and they presented their findings to the rest of the class the following day. They felt really special because the key words came from their own personal information."

Comment recorded on the 1 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Phil Anthony, Head of Maths, Stourport High School:

"What a brilliant website. We have just started to use the 'starter-of-the-day' in our yr9 lessons to try them out before we change from a high school to a secondary school in September. This is one of the best resources on-line we have found. The kids and staff love it. Well done an thank you very much for making my maths lessons more interesting and fun."

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Numeracy

"Numeracy is a proficiency which is developed mainly in Mathematics but also in other subjects. It is more than an ability to do basic arithmetic. It involves developing confidence and competence with numbers and measures. It requires understanding of the number system, a repertoire of mathematical techniques, and an inclination and ability to solve quantitative or spatial problems in a range of contexts. Numeracy also demands understanding of the ways in which data are gathered by counting and measuring, and presented in graphs, diagrams, charts and tables."

Secondary National Strategy, Mathematics at key stage 3

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Level 1 - Drag the questions to match the formulae

Exam Style Questions - A collection of problems in the style of GCSE or IB/A-level exam paper questions (worked solutions are available for Transum subscribers).

More on this topic including lesson Starters, visual aids, investigations and self-marking exercises.

Answers to this exercise are available lower down this page when you are logged in to your Transum account. If you don’t yet have a Transum subscription one can be very quickly set up if you are a teacher, tutor or parent.

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Example

You may also want to use a calculator to check your working. See Calculator Workout skill ##.

Don't wait until you have finished the exercise before you click on the 'Check' button. Click it often as you work through the questions to see if you are answering them correctly. You can double-click the 'Check' button to make it float at the bottom of your screen.

Answers to this exercise are available lower down this page when you are logged in to your Transum account. If you don’t yet have a Transum subscription one can be very quickly set up if you are a teacher, tutor or parent.

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