Probability Math Problems and Questions

How Can I Help My Child with Probability Problems?

Probability can seem abstract and confusing for some students, but practice with concrete objects can make it seem easier. For basic probability practice, put three types of cookies in a paper bag, such as chocolate chip, snickerdoodle and oatmeal. Ask your child to predict how likely it is to pick the oatmeal cookie out of the bag. The probability would be one out of three. Children will like this type of activity because it's interactive and tasty.

To solve some probability problems, your child may benefit from using a visual, like a model or a table. You can also play probability games with dice or coins. For instance, when flipping two coins, write out the combinations of heads (H) and tails (T): HH, HT, TH and TT. This can help your child figure out the probability that both coins will land on tails, which is 1/4.

Probability Problems

1. Roll a dice. What's the probability that the number rolled will be an even number?

A dice has six sides, numbered 1-6. Out of those, only three are even numbers. As a result, the probability of rolling an even number is 3/6, which is simplified as 1/2.

2. There are 52 cards in a deck. If you draw a card, what's the likelihood that the card will be red?

One half of a deck is red and the other half is black, so 26 cards are black. As a result, the probability is 26/52, which is 1/2 when simplified.

3. In a fruit basket, there are 5 bananas, 7 strawberries and 20 blueberries. What's the probability that you will select a banana?

Out of 32 pieces of fruit total, the probability of selecting one of the five bananas is 5/32.

4. In a bag of colored candy, there are 11 green, 13 red, 9 blue and 2 yellow pieces. What's the probability for selecting each of the colored pieces?

There are 35 pieces total. The probability of picking a green piece is 11/35; for red, it's 13/35; for blue, the probability is 9/35 and for yellow, it's 2/35.

5. In a class of 30 students, 9 students prefer pizza, 2 prefer cookies, 3 prefer hamburgers, 13 prefer hot dogs and 3 prefer ice cream. What's the likelihood that the students will be happy if you bring in a dessert to share?

Because only 5 students prefer cookies and ice cream - both of which are dessert foods - only 5/30, or 1/6, of the students will likely be satisfied with a dessert snack.