Learning Resources

Investigation 5 & 6: Applying the Words "AND" and "OR", Parts 1 & 2

Test yourself (Answers)

First draw a Venn Diagram to display the given information:

Recall from a previous lesson that the above two events are complements of each other. The sum of their probabilities should be 1. In fact, instead of using the Venn Diagram to count the number of favorable outcomes to calculate the probability, we could have subtracted the first probability from 1.

In this example the events "doing physics" and "doing chemistry" are not mutually exclusive because there is an overlap of students who do both. The fact that a student is doing physics does not exclude the fact that they may also be doing chemistry. Mathematically, the events are not mutually exclusive because: