| So, far, we have mainly considered simple probability
experiments such as tossing a coin or throwing a die. Usually, probability
experiments are more complicated. For example, tossing two different
coins, tossing a coin and throwing a die, or tossing the same coin three
times etc.
Recall the experiment of tossing a coin twice where we are interested
in the number of heads. The tree diagram is shown below.
Note that the tree diagram representation of this experiment involves
two parts, 'the first toss of the coin' and 'the second toss of the coin'.
Experiments that have two parts can be represented in tabular form.
For example, the following table uses rows to represent 'the first toss
of the coin' and columns to represent 'the second toss of the coin'. The
experiment's outcomes are shown in the bottom right-hand corner of the
table where the rows and columns intersect.
Example 7
Two dice are thrown. Let the events be defined as follows:
A = the numbers facing upwards on the two dice are the same
B = the sum of the numbers facing upwards on the two dice is 10
C = the sum of the numbers facing upwards on the two dice is 13
Find:
Solution:
Two dice are thrown. So, there are 36 elements in the sample space as
shown in the table below.
Key Terms
tabular representation |
