Probability of Independent Events

You may have noticed that in the example with the spinner and the coin on the previous page the probability of tossing tails is one out of two or 1/2. P(tails) = 1/2

The probability of spinning green is one out of six of 1/6. P(green) = 1/6

Note that 1/2 x 1/6 = 1/12.

1/12 is the probability of tails AND green.

So, one way to find the probability for two independent events is to multiply the two probabilities.

If you see AND --> think Multiply

This could also be stated as:

P(tails, green) = 1/12