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Statistics

Quick questions on Probability: addition and multiplication laws, conditional probability and diagrams - Edexcel A-Level Maths

5short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.

What are diagrams?
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A Venn diagram shows each event as a region; the overlap is the intersection ABA \cap B and the whole shaded area is the union ABA \cup B. A tree diagram lists outcomes in stages, with each branch labelled by its probability. You multiply along a path to find the probability of a sequence of outcomes, then add the relevant paths to combine several ways of reaching the same overall result.
What are complementary events?
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The complement of AA, written AA', is the event that AA does not happen, and P(A)=1P(A)P(A') = 1 - P(A). Using the complement is often the quickest route to an answer when the phrase "at least one" appears, because the complement of "at least one" is "none".
What is double counting the overlap?
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The addition law subtracts P(AB)P(A \cap B) to avoid counting it twice.
What is q1?
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Events AA and BB satisfy P(A)=0.5P(A) = 0.5, P(B)=0.4P(B) = 0.4 and P(AB)=0.2P(A \cap B) = 0.2. Find P(AB)P(A \cup B). [2 marks]
What is q2?
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Using the values in Q1, find P(AB)P(A \mid B). [2 marks]

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