Edexcel IGCSE Maths 复习笔记 6.6.1 Combined Probability - Basics
What do we mean by combined probabilities?
This can mean lots of things as you’ll see over these notes and the next set
In general it means we have more than one ‘thing’ (trial/event) to bear in mind and these things may be independent, mutuallyexclusive or may involve an event that follows on from a previous event drawing a second counter from a bag
1. Tree diagrams
Especially useful when we have more than one trial but are only concerned with two outcomes from each
Even more useful when probabilities change for the second experiment
2. Replacement
Are items being selected at random replaced or not?
If not then numbers will decrease as the situation progresses and so probabilities change – this is often called conditional probability
3. AND’s and OR’s
AND means for independent events
OR means for mutually exclusive events
4. Sum of all probabilities is 1
This is a very basic fact that gets lost along the way in more complicated probability questions – but it is one of the best ‘tricks’ you can use!
A good example of its use is when you want the probability of something being “non zero”:P(x ≥ 1) = 1 - P(x = 0)