What is Probability?

Probability

If you spin the spinner what is the probability that you will land on green?

You determine probability by looking at all the possible outcomes.

There are six possible outcomes and one favourable outcome (green) so the probability of landing on green is 1/6.

Probability can be stated as

a fraction: 1/6
a decimal: 0.167 (rounded)
a percent: 16.7%

Probability goes on a scale from 0% (NO CHANCE) to 100% (CERTAIN). There is 100% probability that you will be older next year and 0% probability that you'll be younger next year. All events fall between 0% and 100% or between 0 and 1.

In math the probability of an event happening is stated as:

P(A)

This means the probability of event A happening.

So in the above example with the spinner it would be written as:

P(green) = 1/6

This would be read as: the probability of a green outcome is 1/6.

A list of ALL possible outcomes in an experiment is called the sample space. The sample space in the above spin would be:

blue

green

orange

pink

red

yellow

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