NAME ______________________________________________ DATE______________________________ PERIOD ______________

Probability and the Multiplication Rule ⸱ Practice

Example 1
1. CLOTHING Omari has two pairs of red socks and two pairs of white socks in a drawer. He has a
drawer with 2 red T-shirts and 1 white T-shirt. If he randomly chooses a pair of socks from the
sock drawer and a T-shirt from the T-shirt drawer, what is the probability that he gets a pair of
red socks and a white T-shirt?

2. Phyllis drops a penny in a pond, and then she drops a nickel in the pond. What is the probability
that both coins land with tails showing?

3. A die is rolled and a penny is flipped. Find the probability of rolling a two and landing on
a tail.

4. A bag contains 3 red marbles, 2 green marbles, and 4 blue marbles. A marble is drawn randomly
from the bag and replaced before a second marble is chosen. Find the probability that both
marbles are blue.

5. The forecast predicts a 40% chance of rain on Tuesday and a 60% chance on Wednesday. If
these probabilities are independent, what is the chance that it will rain on both days?

Example 2
Determine whether the events are independent or dependent. Explain your reasoning.
6. You roll an even number on a fair die, and then spin a spinner numbered 1 through 5 and it
lands on an odd number.

7. An ace is drawn from a standard deck of 52 cards, and is not replaced. Then, a second ace is
drawn.

8. In a bag of 3 green and 4 blue marbles, a blue marble is drawn and not replaced. Then, a second
blue marble is drawn.

9. You roll two fair dice and roll a 5 on each.

Example 3
10. LOTTERY Mr. Hanes places the names of four of his students, Joe, Sofia, Hayden, and Bonita, on
slips of paper. From these, he intends to randomly select two students to represent his class at
the robotics convention. He draws the name of the first student, sets it aside, then draws the
name of the second student. What is the probability he draws Sofia, then Joe?

Probability and the Multiplication Rule Reveal Geometry

NAME ______________________________________________ DATE______________________________ PERIOD ______________
11. CARDS A card is drawn from a standard deck of playing cards and is not replaced. Then a second
card is drawn. Find the probability the first card is a jack of spades and the second card is black.

12. INTRAMURAL SPORTS The table shows the color and number of jerseys
available for the intramural volleyball tournament. If each jersey is given
away randomly, what is the probability that the first and second jerseys
given away are both red?

Mixed Exercises
13. SPORTS The format used to determine an overall champion varies by sport. One type of format
used is the best-of-seven series, where up to seven games are played and four wins determine a
champion. If you assume that each team has an equal chance of winning each game, what is the
probability of a team winning the first four games in a best-of-seven series?

14. BUSINESS A sales management team consists of three directors and three assistant directors. To
ensure that each team member has an equal chance to be chosen to represent the team at a
national conference, all 6 names are placed into a hat and four names are drawn at random.
What is the probability that those chosen will consist of 3 directors and 1 assistant director?

15. MAGIC Iris performs a magic trick in which she holds a standard deck of cards and has each of
three people randomly choose a card from the deck. Each person keeps his or her card as the
next person draws. What is the probability that all three people will draw a heart?

16. SCHOOL The probability that a student takes geometry and French at Saul’s school is 0.064. The
probability that a student takes French is 0.45. If taking geometry and taking French are
dependent events, what is the probability that a student takes geometry if the student takes
French?

17. EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES At Bell High School, 43% of the students are in an after-school
club and 28% play sports. What is the probability that a student is in an after-school club if he or
she also plays a sport if being in a club and playing sports are independent events?

Probability and the Multiplication Rule Reveal Geometry

NAME ______________________________________________ DATE______________________________ PERIOD ______________

Sunita and Derek work for a company that produces microchips. Part of their job is to estimate
the number of defective chips given the total number produced. The table shows the estimated
contents of 2 boxes of microchips. Use this information for Exercises 18 and 19.
18. Derek randomly selects one chip from Box B, does not put it back, and then
randomly selects another chip from Box B. What is the probability that both chips
are defective? Explain.

19. Sunita randomly selects one chip from Box A, and then she randomly selects another chip from
1
Box A. The probability that both chips are defective is . Did Sunita replace the first chip
625
before selecting the second one? Explain.

20. TRAVEL A travel agency conducts a survey to determine whether people drive
(D) or fly (F) to their vacation destinations. The results indicated that P(D) =
0.6, P(D ∩ F) = 0.2, and the probability that a family did not vacation is 0.1.

a. What is the probability that a family reached their vacation destination

by flying?

b. What is the probability that a family that drives will also fly?

21. BUSINESS You are trying to decide whether you should expand a business. If you do not expand
and the economy remains good, you expect $2 million in revenue. If the economy is bad, you
expect $0.5 million. The cost to expand is $1 million, but the expected revenue after the
expansion is $4 million in a good economy and $1 million in a bad economy. You assume that
the chances of a good and a bad economy are 30% and 70%, respectively. Create a tree diagram
to represent the situation.

22. REASONING If Fred spins the spinner twice, determine the probability
that he lands on sections labeled “orange” and “green.” Show that
P(orange) ∙ P(green|orange) = P(green) ∙ P(orange|green) in this situation
and explain why this is true in terms of the model. Justify your answer.

Probability and the Multiplication Rule Reveal Geometry

NAME ______________________________________________ DATE______________________________ PERIOD ______________

23. TRICKS Sam is doing a trick with a standard deck of 52 playing cards where she begins each trick
with a fresh deck of cards. Her friend Tracy randomly selects a card, looks at it, and puts it back
in the deck. Then Sam randomly selects the same card. Are the events independent? What is the
probability that they both pick the queen of spades? Explain.

24. CONSTRUCT ARGUMENTS Use the formula for the probability of two dependent events
P(A and B) to derive the conditional probability formula for P(B|A).

25. USE A MODEL A double fault in tennis is when the serving player fails to land their serve “in”
without stepping on or over the service line in two chances. Kelly’s first serve percentage is 40%,
while her second serve percentage is 70%.

a. Draw a probability tree that shows each outcome.

b. What is the probability that Kelly will double fault?

26. ANALYZE There are n different objects in a bag. The probability of drawing object A and then
object B without replacement is about 2.4%. What is the value of n? Explain.

27. WRITE An article states the chance that a person is left-handed given that his or her parent is
left-handed. Explain how you could determine the likelihood that a person being left-handed
and their parent being left-handed are independent events.

28. CREATE Describe a pair of independent events and a pair of dependent events. Explain
your reasoning.

29. PERSEVERE If P(A|B) is the same as P(A), and P(B|A) is the same as P(B), what can be said about
the relationship between events A and B?

Probability and the Multiplication Rule Reveal Geometry