Question

Find the probability that a student is either a finance or a marketing major. Are the events finance specialization and marketing specialization mutually exclusive? If so, what assumption must be made? An airline tracks data on its flight arrivals. Over the past six months, 70 flights on one route arrived early, 150 arrived on time, 15 were late, and 25 were canceled.

1.What is the probability that a flight is early? On time? Late? Canceled?

2. Are these outcomes mutually exclusive?

3. What is the probability that a flight is either early or on time?

Answer 1

Two events are mutually exclusive if they both cannot occur at the same time. The events finance specialization and marketing specialization can be considered to be mutually exclusive. The assumption made here is that a person cannot do specialization in both majors at the same time.

Total number of flights = 70+150+15+25 = 260

1. P(flight is early) = 70/260 = 0.2692

P(flight is on time) = 150/260 = 0.5769

P(flight was late) = 15/260 = 0.0577

P(flight was canceled) = 25/260 = 0.0962

2. These events are mutually exclusive because they cannot occur at the same time. For example, a flight cannot be late and on time at the same time.

3. P(flight is either early or on time) = (70+150)/260 = 0.8462