Mathematics

Material on Test 4

Test 4 is Thursday, Nov. 19. The test will be on Secs. 5.1 - 5.7.

Please bring a blue book for taking the test. If you do not, we will still grade your test, but we will not be responsible if part of it is lost.

Calculators may be used for arithmetic only.

You may bring to the test one sheet of paper with whatever you find useful written on it. (You may use both sides of the paper if you want.)

Things you should be able to do:

5.2. Problems involving union, intersection, complement.

5.3. Problems involving uniform sample space. Counting the number of outcomes in the sample space or in an event often uses ideas from Chapter 4: Venn diagrams, multiplication principle, permutations, combinations.

5.4. Conditional probability problems. The basic formula is the boxed formula on p. 182, but in order to use the formula you need to figure out some probabilities. This can involve the ideas of the previous sections. Also, if all outcomes are equally likely, the formula simplifies, as we discussed in lecture.

5.5. Problems involving tree diagrams. You can use them to calculate probabilities, and you can use them together with the conditional probability formula to calculate conditional probabilities.

5.7. Problems involving independent events. If you know events are independent, you can use this information to figure out the probability of their intersection, and to fill out probabilities in a tree diagram. The independent trials formula provides a quick way to do some problems that would otherwise require drawing a big tree.

5.8. Problems involving expected value. The basic formulas are on p. 202 and p. 204. To use these formulas you need to know some probabilities; figuring them out may involve the earlier sections.

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