What is the probability of picking a card from a deck of 52 cards and getting a king or a queen?

What is the probability of picking a card from a deck of 52 cards and getting a king or a queen?

Mutually Exclusive: can't happen at the same time.

Examples:

  • Turning left and turning right are Mutually Exclusive (you can't do both at the same time)
  • Tossing a coin: Heads and Tails are Mutually Exclusive
  • Cards: Kings and Aces are Mutually Exclusive

What is not Mutually Exclusive:

  • Turning left and scratching your head can happen at the same time
  • Kings and Hearts, because we can have a King of Hearts!

Like here:

What is the probability of picking a card from a deck of 52 cards and getting a king or a queen?
 
What is the probability of picking a card from a deck of 52 cards and getting a king or a queen?
Aces and Kings are
Mutually Exclusive
(can't be both)
  Hearts and Kings are
not
Mutually Exclusive
(can be both)

Probability

Let's look at the probabilities of Mutually Exclusive events. But first, a definition:

Probability of an event happening = Number of ways it can happen Total number of outcomes

Number of ways it can happen: 4 (there are 4 Kings)

Total number of outcomes: 52 (there are 52 cards in total)

So the probability = 4 52 = 1 13

Mutually Exclusive

When two events (call them "A" and "B") are Mutually Exclusive it is impossible for them to happen together:

P(A and B) = 0

"The probability of A and B together equals 0 (impossible)"

A card cannot be a King AND a Queen at the same time!

  • The probability of a King and a Queen is 0 (Impossible)

But, for Mutually Exclusive events, the probability of A or B is the sum of the individual probabilities:

P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B)

"The probability of A or B equals the probability of A plus the probability of B"

In a Deck of 52 Cards:

  • the probability of a King is 1/13, so P(King)=1/13
  • the probability of a Queen is also 1/13, so P(Queen)=1/13

When we combine those two Events:

  • The probability of a King or a Queen is (1/13) + (1/13) = 2/13

Which is written like this:

P(King or Queen) = (1/13) + (1/13) = 2/13

So, we have:

  • P(King and Queen) = 0
  • P(King or Queen) = (1/13) + (1/13) = 2/13

Special Notation

Instead of "and" you will often see the symbol (which is the "Intersection" symbol used in Venn Diagrams)

Instead of "or" you will often see the symbol (the "Union" symbol)

So we can also write:

  • P(King Queen) = 0
  • P(King Queen) = (1/13) + (1/13) = 2/13

What is the probability of picking a card from a deck of 52 cards and getting a king or a queen?

Example: Scoring Goals

If the probability of:

  • scoring no goals (Event "A") is 20%
  • scoring exactly 1 goal (Event "B") is 15%

Then:

  • The probability of scoring no goals and 1 goal is 0 (Impossible)
  • The probability of scoring no goals or 1 goal is 20% + 15% = 35%

Which is written:

P(A B) = 0

P(A B) = 20% + 15% = 35%

Remembering

To help you remember, think:

What is the probability of picking a card from a deck of 52 cards and getting a king or a queen?

"Or has more ... than And"

Also is like a cup which holds more than

Not Mutually Exclusive

Now let's see what happens when events are not Mutually Exclusive.

Example: Hearts and Kings

Hearts and Kings together is only the King of Hearts:

What is the probability of picking a card from a deck of 52 cards and getting a king or a queen?

But Hearts or Kings is:

  • all the Hearts (13 of them)
  • all the Kings (4 of them)

But that counts the King of Hearts twice!

So we correct our answer, by subtracting the extra "and" part:

What is the probability of picking a card from a deck of 52 cards and getting a king or a queen?

16 Cards = 13 Hearts + 4 Kings − the 1 extra King of Hearts

Count them to make sure this works!

As a formula this is:

P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B) − P(A and B)

"The probability of A or B equals the probability of A plus the probability of B
minus the probability of A and B"

Here is the same formula, but using and :

P(A ∪ B) = P(A) + P(B) − P(A ∩ B)

A Final Example

16 people study French, 21 study Spanish and there are 30 altogether. Work out the probabilities!

This is definitely a case of not Mutually Exclusive (you can study French AND Spanish).

Let's say b is how many study both languages:

  • people studying French Only must be 16-b
  • people studying Spanish Only must be 21-b

And we get:

What is the probability of picking a card from a deck of 52 cards and getting a king or a queen?

And we know there are 30 people, so:

(16−b) + b + (21−b) = 30

37 − b = 30

b = 7

And we can put in the correct numbers:

What is the probability of picking a card from a deck of 52 cards and getting a king or a queen?

So we know all this now:

  • P(French) = 16/30
  • P(Spanish) = 21/30
  • P(French Only) = 9/30
  • P(Spanish Only) = 14/30
  • P(French or Spanish) = 30/30 = 1
  • P(French and Spanish) = 7/30

Lastly, let's check with our formula:

P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B) − P(A and B)

Put the values in:

30/30 = 16/30 + 21/30 − 7/30

Yes, it works!

Summary:

Mutually Exclusive

  • A and B together is impossible: P(A and B) = 0
  • A or B is the sum of A and B: P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B)

Not Mutually Exclusive

  • A or B is the sum of A and B minus A and B: P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B) − P(A and B)

  • And is (the "Intersection" symbol)
  • Or is (the "Union" symbol)

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Despite the fact that (for good reason) this is not how the dealing is done, let us assume A gets the first $13$ cards, and B gets the next $13$, and so on.

There are $\binom{52}{8}$ equally likely ways to choose the locations of the places where the $8$ cards we are interested in will go, and for each of these ways there are $8!$ ways to permute the cards.

There are $13^4$ ways to choose a Queen location in each group of $13$. For each of these, there are $12^4$ ways to choose a King location in each group. The chosen Queen locations can be filled with Queens in $4!$ ways. For each of these, the chosen King locations can be filled with Kings in $4!$ ways.

Thus the number of "favourables" is $13^412^44!4!$, and the required probability is $$\frac{13^412^4 4!4!}{\binom{52}{8}8!}.$$

Probability is a field of mathematics that studies the likelihood of a random event occurring. Since many events cannot be predicted with total certainty, we use probability to anticipate how probable they are to occur. Probability can range from 0 to 1, with 0 indicating an improbable event and 1 indicating a certain event. Probability has many applications. Risk assessment and modeling are examples of how probability theory is used in everyday life. Actuarial science is used by the insurance sector and markets to establish pricing and make trading decisions. Environmental control, entitlement analysis, and financial regulation all use probability methodologies. Probability also finds its applications in weather forecasting, agriculture, and politics.

Formula for Probability

Probability of an event, P(A) = (Number of favorable outcomes) / (Total number of outcomes)  

There are majorly three types of probability, they are theoretical probability, experimental probability, and axiomatic probability. Let’s learn about them in detail,

Theoretical Probability

It is predicated on the likelihood of something occurring. The rationale behind probability is the foundation of theoretical probability. For example, to calculate the theoretical probability of rolling a die and getting the number 3, we must first know the number of possible outcomes. We know that a die has six numbers (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), hence the number of possible outcomes is six as well. So, the probability of rolling a three on a dice is one in six, or 1/6

Experimental Probability

Experimental probability, unlike theoretical probability, incorporates the number of trials, i.e. it is based on the results of an experiment. The experimental probability can be computed by dividing the total number of trials by the number of possible outcomes. For example, if a dice is rolled 40 times and the number three is recorded 10 times then, the experimental probability for heads is 10/40 or 1/4

Axiomatic Probability

A set of principles or axioms are established in the axiomatic probability that applies to all types. Kolmogorov established these axioms, which are known as Kolmogorov’s three axioms. There are three main concepts in probability. They are sample space, events, and probability function. Let’s learn about them in detail,

Sample Space (S)

A sample space is the collection of all possible outcomes of an experiment. Tossing three dice produces a sample space of 216 potential outcomes, each of which may be recognized by an ordered set (a, b, c), where a, b, and c take one of the following values: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Event (A)

A well-defined subset of the sample space is referred to as an event. The event the sum of the faces shown on the two dice equals five has six outcomes: (1, 1, 3), (1, 3, 1), (3, 1, 1), (1, 2, 2), (2, 2, 1) and (2, 1, 1).

Probability Function (P)

The function that is used to assign a probability to an occurrence is known as the Probability Function (P). The probability function (P) determines the likelihood of an event (A) being drawn from the sample space (S).

Solution:

Total number of cards in a deck = 52

Total number of kings in a deck of 52 cards = 4

If we pick one card at random from the 52 cards, the probability of getting a king = Total number of kings in the deck / Total number of cards in the deck.

i.e. Probability of getting a king = 4/52 = 1/13

Total number of queens in a deck of 52 cards = 4

If we pick one card at random from the 52 cards, the probability of getting a queen = Total number of queens in the deck / Total number of cards in the deck.

i.e. Probability of getting a queen = 4/52= 1/13

Therefore, probability of getting a king or a queen, P(E) = probability of getting a king + probability of getting a queen = 1/13 + 1/13 = 2/13

Similar Questions

Question 1:  Find the probability of getting a red king.

Solution:

Total number of cards = 52

No. of favorable cards that are red kings = 2

Therefore probability of getting a red king = 2/52 = 1/26

Question 2: Find the probability of getting a red non-face card.

Solution:

Total number of red cards in a deck = 26

Face cards are cards that are either, king, queen, or jack

Total number of red face cards = 6

Therefore, the total number of red non-face cards = 26 – 6

Therefore, the probability of getting a red non-face card= 20/52 = 5/13

Question 3: Find the probability of getting a black card.

Solution:

Total number of cards = 52

Total number of suits = 4

Total number of black suits = 2

Therefore, total number of black cards = 2 × 13 = 26

Therefore the probability of getting a black card= Total number of black cards in the deck / total number of cards in the deck = 26/52 = 1/2.

Question 4: Find the probability of getting a red ace or a spade.

Solution:

Total number of cards = 52

No. of favorable cards that are red aces = 2

Therefore the probability of getting a red ace = 2/52

Total number of cards that are spades =13

Therefore the probability of getting a spade = 13/52

Therefore, probability of getting a red ace or a spade, P(E) = probability of getting a red ace + probability of getting a spade = 2/52 + 13/52 = 15/52