Last updated on June 12th, 2025
Probability is defined as a prediction of chance or likelihood of an event that will happen in the future. There are many events that may or may not occur. The probability ranges from 0 (that represents the impossibility of the event) to 1 (that represents the certainty of the event). Probability can be represented in decimals, fractions, or in percentages. There are certain properties of probability that you should keep in mind: The probability of an impossible event is null, represented by the number 0. An event's total number of possible outcomes is the probability which equals to 1. That is, suppose a, b, c, and d are the possible outcomes. The probability will be a + b + c + d = 1. There will be no probability that has negative value. Or in other words, probability never includes negative values.
Probability is the chance of an event that may or may not occur. For those events, understanding the probability rules and predicting the likelihood of those events will erase the serious harms or threats that may occur in the future.
Such as investors in the stock market where they analyze the future outcomes of stock market rates and in weather forecasting, where they predict the weather changes and harmful events that may occur in the future, etc.
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There are specific rules and conditions probability follows that will help us calculate the chances of different events happening. Understanding these rules will eliminate risks in predicting future events. Let’s understand all those rules:
If an event happening is a union of two events, let’s say event A and event B. Then the probability of that event happening is represented by
P (A ⋃ B) = P (A) + P (B) – P (A ∩ B)
If there is an intersection between two other events, say A and B. Then both events occurring or the probability of those two events occurring together is represented by
P (A ∩ B) = P (A) × P (B)
If A is an event, then the chance that the event won't happen, or that A's complement, is given by
P (A’) = 1 – P (A)
If we already know that event A has happened, and we want to find the probability of event B happening, we use a special rule. This rule says that:
P (A/B) = P (A ∩ B) / P (B)
Probability is not just about numbers, or we can say that probability is not only used in mathematics. It is used in everyday life while playing games, weather forecasting, business etc. Let’s understand some real-life applications of probability.
While learning probability, kids often make common mistakes that will lead to incorrect or faulty answers. Understanding these common mistakes will help kids to avoid them in order to build a strong foundation in probability.
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Imagine a bag contains 4 red, 2 blue, and 7 green marbles. What will be the probability of picking a blue marble?
2/13
There are 13 marbles in total in the bag. And there are 2 blue marbles out of 13 other marbles. So the probability of getting blue out of the 13 marbles will be 2/13.
Allen rolls a fair die while playing Snake and Ladder. What is his probability of getting a number greater than 4?
⅓
The numbers greater than 4 on the die are 5 and 6, because there are only outcomes till 6. So the probability for Allen getting a number greater than 4 will be 2/6 or 1/3.
A girl flips a coin twice. What is the probability of getting two heads?
¼
The possible outcomes that the girl will get are:
HH, HT, TH, TT
Among these, only one outcome has two heads. Thus, the probability of the girl getting two heads is ¼.
In the game of deck of cards. What is the probability of getting a King?
1/13
In a standard deck, there are 52 cards. Among these, there are 4 Kings in a deck. So the probability of getting a King will be 4/52 or 1/13.
A chocolate box has 5 red, 3 green and 2 blue chocolates. What is the probability of picking a red chocolate out of the box?
⅖
There are 5 red chocolates in the box which has a total of 10 chocolates. So the probability of getting a red chocolate is 5/10 or 2/5.
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Jaipreet Kour Wazir is a data wizard with over 5 years of expertise in simplifying complex data concepts. From crunching numbers to crafting insightful visualizations, she turns raw data into compelling stories. Her journey from analytics to education ref
: She compares datasets to puzzle games—the more you play with them, the clearer the picture becomes!