
3: Probability


We see probabilities almost every day in our real lives. Most times you pick up the newspaper or read the news on the internet, you encounter probability. There is a 65% chance of rain today, or a pre-election poll shows that 52% of voters approve of a ballot of the ideas students think they know about probability are incorrect. This is one area of item, are examples of probabilities. Did you ever wonder why a flush beats a full house in poker? It’s because the probability of getting a flush is smaller than the probability of getting a full house. Probabilities can also be used to make business decisions, figure out insurance premiums, and determine the price of raffle tickets.

If an experiment has only three possible outcomes, does this mean that each outcome has a 1/3 chance of occurring? Many students who have not studied probability would answer yes. Unfortunately, they could be wrong. The answer depends on the experiment. Many math where their intuition is sometimes misleading. Students need to use experiments or mathematical formulas to calculate probabilities correctly.

3: Probability is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Maxie Inigo, Jennifer Jameson, Kathryn Kozak, Maya Lanzetta, & Kim Sonier via source content that was edited to conform to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.