Session:3 Probability Topics
3.4 Contingency Tables and Probability Trees
Introductory Business Statistics | Leadership Development – Micro-Learning Session
Rice University 2020 | Michael Laverty, Colorado State University Global Chris Littel, North Carolina State University| https://openstax.org/details/books/introductory-business-statistics
Contingency Tables
A contingency table provides a way of portraying data that can facilitate calculating probabilities. The table helps in determining conditional probabilities quite easily. The table displays sample values in relation to two different variables that may be dependent or contingent on one another. Later on, we will use contingency tables again, but in another manner.
EXAMPLE 3.20
Suppose a study of speeding violations and drivers who use cell phones produced the following fictional data:
| Speeding violation in the last year | No speeding violation in the last year | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uses cell phone while driving | 25 | 280 | 305 |
| Does not use cell phone while driving | 45 | 405 | 450 |
| Total | 70 | 685 | 755 |
The total number of people in the sample is 755. The row totals are 305 and 450. The column totals are 70 and 685. Notice that 305 + 450 = 755 and 70 + 685 = 755.
Calculate the following probabilities using the table.
Problem
- Find P(Driver is a cell phone user).
- Find P(Driver had no violation in the last year).
- Find P(Driver had no violation in the last year ∩
was a cell phone user).
- Find P(Driver is a cell phone user ∪
driver had no violation in the last year).
- Find P(Driver is a cell phone user |
driver had a violation in the last year).
- Find P(Driver had no violation last year |
driver was not a cell phone user)
Solution
- number of cell phone userstotal number in study = 305755
- number that had no violationtotal number in study = 685755
- 280755
- (305755 + 685755) − 280755 = 710755
- 2570
(The sample space is reduced to the number of drivers who had a violation.)
- 405450
(The sample space is reduced to the number of drivers who were not cell phone users.)
TRY IT 3.20
Table 3.3 shows the number of athletes who stretch before exercising and how many had injuries within the past year.
| Injury in last year | No injury in last year | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stretches | 55 | 295 | 350 |
| Does not stretch | 231 | 219 | 450 |
| Total | 286 | 514 | 800 |
- What is P(athlete stretches before exercising)?
- What is P(athlete stretches before exercising|
no injury in the last year)?
EXAMPLE 3.21
Table 3.4 shows a random sample of 100 hikers and the areas of hiking they prefer.
| Sex | The coastline | Near lakes and streams | On mountain peaks | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 18 | 16 | ___ | 45 |
| Male | ___ | ___ | 14 | 55 |
| Total | ___ | 41 | ___ | ___ |
Problem
a. Complete the table.
Solution
a.
| Sex | The coastline | Near lakes and streams | On mountain peaks | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 18 | 16 | 11 | 45 |
| Male | 16 | 25 | 14 | 55 |
| Total | 34 | 41 | 25 | 100 |
Problem
b. Are the events “being female” and “preferring the coastline” independent events?
Let F = being female and let C = preferring the coastline.
- Find P(F∩C)
.
- Find P(F)P(C)
Are these two numbers the same? If they are, then F and C are independent. If they are not, then F and C are not independent.
Solution
b.
- P(F∩C)=18100
= 0.18
- P(F)P(C) = (45100)(34100)
= (0.45)(0.34) = 0.153
P(F∩C)
≠ P(F)P(C), so the events F and C are not independent.
Problem
c. Find the probability that a person is male given that the person prefers hiking near lakes and streams. Let M = being male, and let L = prefers hiking near lakes and streams.
- What word tells you this is a conditional?
- Fill in the blanks and calculate the probability: P(___|
___) = ___.
- Is the sample space for this problem all 100 hikers? If not, what is it?
Solution
c.
- The word ‘given’ tells you that this is a conditional.
- P(M|
L) = 2541
- No, the sample space for this problem is the 41 hikers who prefer lakes and streams.
Problem
d. Find the probability that a person is female or prefers hiking on mountain peaks. Let F = being female, and let P = prefers mountain peaks.
- Find P(F).
- Find P(P).
- Find P(F∩P)
.
- Find P(F∪P)
.
Solution
d.
- P(F) = 45100
- P(P) = 25100
- P(F∩P)
= 11100
- P(F∪P)
= 45100
+ 25100
– 11100
= 59100
TRY IT 3.21
Table 3.6 shows a random sample of 200 cyclists and the routes they prefer. Let M = males and H = hilly path.
| Gender | Lake path | Hilly path | Wooded path | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 45 | 38 | 27 | 110 |
| Male | 26 | 52 | 12 | 90 |
| Total | 71 | 90 | 39 | 200 |
- Out of the males, what is the probability that the cyclist prefers a hilly path?
- Are the events “being male” and “preferring the hilly path” independent events?
EXAMPLE 3.22
Muddy Mouse lives in a cage with three doors. If Muddy goes out the first door, the probability that he gets caught by Alissa the cat is 15
and the probability he is not caught is 45
. If he goes out the second door, the probability he gets caught by Alissa is 14
and the probability he is not caught is 34
. The probability that Alissa catches Muddy coming out of the third door is 12
and the probability she does not catch Muddy is 12
. It is equally likely that Muddy will choose any of the three doors so the probability of choosing each door is 13
.
| Caught or not | Door one | Door two | Door three | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caught | 115
|
112
|
16
|
____ |
| Not caught | 415
|
312
|
16
|
____ |
| Total | ____ | ____ | ____ | 1 |
- The first entry 115=(15)(13)
is P(Door One∩Caught)
- The entry 415=(45)(13)
is P(Door One∩Not Caught)
Verify the remaining entries.