AMC 8 Preparation Chapter 24 Probability

PROBLEMS

☆Problem1. James rotates spinners P, Q and R and adds the resulting numbers.
What is the probability that his sum is an odd number?

(A) 1/4 (B) 1/3 (C) 1/2 (D) 2/3 (E) 3/4

Problem 2. A number is selected at random from 101 through 900. What is the
probability that the number selected is a perfect square?
1 21 1 1 5
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
40 800 80 5 12

Problem 3. A bag contains 3 white, 4 blue, and 5 red marbles. What is the
probability that a marble selected at random is blue?
1 1 1 1 5
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
12 3 6 5 12

Problem 4. A bag contains 5 blue marbles, 4 white marbles, and 3 red marbles. If
three marbles are randomly selected from the bag, what is the probability that the
marbles selected will be of the same color?
1 1 1 1 3
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
22 110 6 5 44

Problem 5. All three-digit numbers that have only the digits 1, 3, 5, or 7 in each
position are recorded on slips of paper and placed in a container. If a slip of paper
is picked at random from the container, what is the probability that it contains the
number 153?

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1 1 1 1 5
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
12 24 64 4 24

Problem 6. Two fair cubical dice are tossed. What is the probability that the sum
of the numbers showing on the dice will be four?
1 1 1 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
12 9 36 4 18

Problem 7. What is the probability that three randomly selected points on the
geoboard shown will be vertices of a triangle?
19 1 1 1 2
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
21 9 36 14 21

Problem 8. Two different prime numbers are selected at random from among the
first ten prime numbers. What is the probability that the sum of the two primes is
24?
1 2 1 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
45 45 15 9 5

Problem 9. In the figure shown, the circle with center O has a radius of 8 and the
square has side length of 16. If a point is selected at random from
within the region determined by the circle and the square, what is
the probability that it will be within the shaded region?
    2
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
  16 3  4 16 3  16 3  16

Problem 10. Darts thrown at a board are equally likely to hit anywhere within a
region on the board. If 75% of the darts land inside the small
square, what is the value of y ?
(A) 4 3 (B) 3 3 (C) 2 3 (D) 3 (E) 7

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Problem 11. Points A, B, C, and D, are located on AB such that AB  4 AD

 5BC . If a point is selected at random on AB , what is the probability that it is
between C and D?

1 11 1 1 9
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
2 20 3 4 20

Problem 12. Parallelogram ABCD has vertices A(3, 3), B( –3, –3), C( –9, –3), and
D( –3, 3). If a point is selected at random from the region
determined by the parallelogram, what is the probability
that the point is not above the x-axis?
1 1 1 1 2
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
2 3 5 4 3

Problem 13. A dart is thrown at the square target shown. Assuming the dart hits
the target at a random location, what is the probability that it
will be in the shaded region?
5 3 4 3 9
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
16 16 4 4 16

Problem 14. When four fair coins are tossed, what is the probability that the
outcome will consist of two heads and two tails?
1 11 1 1 3
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
2 20 3 4 8

Problem 15. Four coins are tossed. What is the probability that the outcome will
be four heads or four tails?
3 3 1 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
4 8 6 8 4

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Problem 16. If a marble is chosen from a bag that contains 10 red marbles, 5 blue
marbles, and 15 white marbles, what is the probability that the marble chosen is
blue or red?
1 1 1 1 2
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
2 6 3 4 3

Problem 17. If you roll a pair of dice, what is the probability expressed as a
common fraction that both numbers are 2’s or that the sum is less than 6?
1 5 1 1 2
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) .
2 18 3 4 3

Problem 18. In his locker, Andrew has 2 history books and 3 math books. In his
rush to get to class, he grabs 1 book, then a second book, without stopping to
look. What is the probability that he pulls a math book out first and a history book
out second?
1 5 1 3 2
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
2 18 3 10 3

Problem 19. A dime, 2 nickels, and 3 pennies are in a container. Assume that it is
equally likely to shake out any one coin. What is the probability of shaking out a
penny each of 4 times if the coin is returned after each shake?
1 1 1 3 2
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
2 8 16 10 3

Problem 20. What is the probability that, in three single draws without
replacement, two red marbles and one blue marble will be drawn in that order
from a bag containing six red marbles, eight yellow marbles, and seven blue
marbles?
1 1 3 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) .
8 18 38 4 38

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Problem 21. A bag contains 6 marbles and each is red or blue. If 2 marbles are
1
randomly selected, the chance that they are both blue is . How many red
5
marbles are in the bag?
(A) 3 (B) 5 (C) 7 (D) 9 (E)11.

Problem 22. What is the probability that, when Alex selects a positive even
integer less than twenty and Bob picks a positive multiple of 3 less than thirty,
they pick the same number?
1 1 2 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) .
3 9 27 27 38

Problem 23. Two distinct numbers are chosen at random from {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}.
What is the probability that the quotient of the smaller number divided by the
larger number is a terminating decimal?
2 3 1 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) .
5 5 6 7 8

Problem 24. Digit d is randomly selected from the set {4, 5, 6, 7}. Without
replacement of d, another digit e is selected. What is the probability that the two-
digit number de is a multiple of 3?
1 2 1 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) .
3 3 4 7 8

Problem 25. What is the probability that David and Tim randomly select the
same number if David selects a positive divisor of 64 and Tim selects a multiple
of 3 that is less than 64?
1 2 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) 0.
3 3 4 7

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Problem 26. A bag contains only red marbles, blue marbles, and yellow marbles.
1
The probability of randomly selecting a red marble from this bat is , and the
3
1
probability of randomly selecting a blue marble is . Which of the following
5
could be the total number of marbles in the bag?
(A) 10 (B) 15 (C) 18 (D) 20 (E) 32

Problem 27. A box contains wood beads, red glass beads, and blue glass beads.
The number of glass beads is 7 times the number of wood beads. If one bead is to
be chosen at random from the box, the probability that a red glass bead will be
chosen is 6 times the probability that a blue glass bead will be chosen. If there are
24 red glass beads in the box, what is the total number of beads in the box?
(A) 32 (B) 42 (C) 48 (D) 60 (E) 64

Problem 28. A list consists of all possible three-letter arrangements formed by

using the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H such that the first letter is D and one of the
remaining letters is A. If no letter is used more than once in an arrangement in the
list and one three-letter arrangement is randomly selected from the list, what is the
probability that the arrangement selected will be DCA?
(A) 1/5 (B) 1/6 (C) 1/9 (D) 1/10 (E) 1/12

Problem 29. There are x (either hardback or paperback) books on a shelf. If one
book is to be selected at random, the probability that a paperback will be selected
5
is . In terms of x, how many of the books are hardbacks?
12
5x 7x 12x 12x
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) 5x
12 12 5 7

Problem 30. Anna is to spin each of the three spinners shown and then add the
resulting numbers. What is the probability that the sum of the three numbers will
be odd?

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AMC 8 Preparation Chapter 24 Probability

1 2 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) 1.
3 3 4 7

Problem 31. In the 3 × 4 grid shown, the points are one unit apart horizontally
and vertically. Given that two points are randomly selected
from the grid, what is the probability that the distance between
them is 2 ?
1 2 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) 0.
3 11 4 7

Problem 32. Two girls and three boys are to be seated in a row of five desks.
What is the probability that the students at the ends of the row are both boys?

1 2 1 3 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) .
3 11 4 10 5

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SOLUTIONS

☆Problem1. Solution: D.
Because the sum of a number from spinner Q and a number from spinner R is
always odd, the sum of the numbers on the three spinners will be odd exactly
when the number from spinner P is even. Because 4 and 6 are even number on
spinner P, the probability of getting an odd sum is 2/3.

Problem 2. Solution: A.
There are 900 – 101 + 1 = 800 numbers.
There are    101  30  10  20 square numbers.
900 
The probability that the number selected is a perfect square is 20/800 = 1/40.

Problem 3. Solution: B.
There are total 3 + 4 + 5 = 12 marbles. There are 4 blue marbles. The probability
to draw a blue marble is then 4/12 = 1/3.

Problem 4. Solution: E.
There are total 5 + 4 + 3 = 12 marbles. If three marbles are randomly selected
from the bag, the possible outcomes will be:
blue, blue, blue
white, white, white
red, red, red.
 5   4   3
       
3 3 3 10  4  1 15 3
P        .
12  220 220 44
 
3 

Problem 5. Solution: C.
There are 4  4  4 = 64 such 3-digit numbers. There is only one 3-digit number
1
of 153. So the probability is .
64

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Problem 6. Solution: A.
When two dice are rolled, there are 36 outcomes. Three outcomes show that the
sum of the integers on the top faces is 4.

D1 1 2 3 4 5 6

D2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

The probability is 3/ 36 = 1/12.

Problem 7. Solution: A.
9
The number of ways to select three vertices from the nine vertices is    84 .
3
We must exclude from our count those sets of three points that are collinear.

19
The probability is (84 – 8)/84 = .
21

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Problem 8. Solution: C.
Let us list the first ten prime numbers: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29.
We have 3 ways to get a sum of 24: 5 + 19 = 24; 7 + 17 = 24; and 11 + 13 = 24.
10 
So we have    45 sums and the probability is 3/45 = 1/15.
2 

Problem 9. Solution: D.
measure of area of favorable region
P=
measure of area of total region

1
  82 16 
P 4   .
3
  82  162 3  16  16 2
3  16
4

Problem 10. Solution: A.

y 2 75 3 3 2
P    y2  8 
82 100 4 4
y4 3

Problem 11. Solution: B.

4 4
4 AD  AD  AD 4   1
CD AB  BC  AD 5 5 11
P     .
AB AB 4 AD 4 20

Problem 12. Solution: A.

1
S ABCD
2 1
P  .
S ABCD 2

Problem 13. Solution: A.

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AMC 8 Preparation Chapter 24 Probability

measure of area of favorable region

P=
measure of area of total region

Area of shaded 32  22 5
P  
Area of largest square 42 16

Problem 14. Solution: E.

There are total 2  2  2  2 = 16 ways to flip four coins.
4!
There are 4 ways to get exactly two heads and two tails (HHTT): 6.
2!2!
The probability that the outcome will consist of two heads and two tails is:
6/16 = 3/8.

Problem 15. Solution: D.

There are total 2  2  2  2 = 16 ways to flip three coins.
There is only 1 way to flip four heads.
There is only 1 way to flip four tails.
The probability of all heads: 1/16.
The probability of all tails: 1/6.

Since the two events are mutually exclusive (you can’t flip a coin and get both
head and tail), P( A  B)  0

The probability that all are heads or all are tails can be calculated using the
1 1 1
formula: P( A or B)  P( A  B)  P( A)  P( B)    .
16 16 8
Problem 16. Solution: A.
There are total 10 + 5 + 15 = 30 marbles. There are 5 blue and 10 red marbles.
The probability to draw a blue marble is 5/30 = 1/6.
The probability to draw a red marble is 10/30 = 1/3.

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The probability that the marble chosen is blue or red can be calculated using the
formula: P( A or B)  P( A  B)  P( A)  P( B)  P( A  B)
1 1 3 1
  0  .
6 3 6 2

Problem 17. Solution: B.

In 1 of the 36 possible outcomes the two numbers are 2’s. There are 9 outcomes
that the sum is less than 6. The probability is (1 + 9)/36 = 10/36 = 5/18.

D1 1 2 3 4 5 6

D2

1 1, 1 1, 2 1, 3 1, 4 1, 5 1, 6

2 2, 1 2, 2 2, 3 2, 4 2, 5 2, 6

3 3, 1 3, 2 3, 3 3, 4 3, 5 3, 8

4 4, 1 4, 2 4, 3 4, 4 4, 5 4, 6

5 5, 1 5, 2 5, 3 5, 4 5, 5 5, 6

6 6, 1 6, 2 6, 3 6, 4 6, 5 6, 6

Problem 18. Solution: D.

 3  2 
    
1 1 6 3
P     .
5 4 20 10

Problem 19. Solution: C.

There are total 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 coins. There are 5 blue and 10 red marbles.
The probability of shaking out a penny is 3/6 = 1/2.

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AMC 8 Preparation Chapter 24 Probability

The probability of shaking out a penny each of 4 times if the coin is returned after
1 1 1 1 1
each shake is then    = .
2 2 2 2 16

Problem 20. Solution: E.

There are total 6 + 8 + 7 = 21 marbles.
 6  5  7 
       
1 1 1 210 1
P       .
21  20  19 7980 38

Problem 21. Solution: A.

b
 
2 1  b  15 b(b  1)
P      3   3  b2  b  6  0 
6 5  2 5 2
 
 2
(b  2)(b  3)  0 . So b = 3.

Problem 22. Solution: D.

Alex can select 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18
Bob can select 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, and 27.
They can select the following three numbers: 6, 12, and 18.
3 1
The probability that Alex select these three numbers is PA   .
9 3
1
The probability that Bob matches Alex selection is PB  .
9
1 1 1
The answer is P    .
3 9 27
Problem 23. Solution: B.
The fraction can be expressed as a terminating decimal if the denomination
contains only factors of 2 or 5.

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AMC 8 Preparation Chapter 24 Probability

6
We have    15 ways to select two numbers.
 2
The following fractions are not terminating:
(1, 3), (2, 3), (1,6), (2, 6), (4, 6), (5, 6).

The probability that the quotient of the smaller number divided by the larger
6 2
number is a repeating decimal is Pr   .
15 5
The probability that the quotient of the smaller number divided by the larger
2 3
number is a terminating decimal is Pt  1  Pr  1   .
5 5

Problem 24. Solution: A.

Method 1: If a two-digit number is divisible by 3, then the sum of its digits must
be divisible by 3. The following cases are only ones that work: (4, 5), (5, 4), (7,
5), and (5, 7).

Let A1 be the event of selecting the digit 4 as the digit d.

B1 be the event of selecting the digit 5 as the digit e.
A2 be the event of selecting the digit 5 as the digit d.
B2 be the event of selecting the digit 4 as the digit e.
A3 be the event of selecting the digit 7 as the digit d.
B3 be the event of selecting the digit 5 as the digit e.
A4 be the event of selecting the digit 5 as the digit d.
B4 be the event of selecting the digit 7 as the digit e.
B be the event that the two-digit number de is a multiple of 3.
B  A1B1  A2 B2  A3 B3 + A4 B4
P( B)  P( A1B1 )  P( A2 B2 )  P( A3 B3 )  P( A4 B4 )
1 1 1 1
P( A1 )  ; P( A2 )  ; P( A3 )  ; P( A4 )  .
4 4 4 4

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AMC 8 Preparation Chapter 24 Probability

1 1 1 1
P( B A1 )  ; P( B A2 )  ; P( B A3 )  ; P( B A4 )  .
3 3 3 3
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1
P( B)           .
4 3 4 3 4 3 4 3 12 3

Method 2: There are a total of 12 ways to select two digits (four ways to select
first digit and 3 ways to select second digit).

There are four favorable ways (4, 5), (5, 4), (5, 7), and (7, 5) such that the two-
digit number is a multiple of 3.
4 1
The probability is P   .
43 3

Problem 25. Solution: E.

The positive divisors of 64 are: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64.
The multiple of 3 includes: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36, 39, 42, 45,
48, 51, 54, 57, 60, 63.
No number is belonging to two sets. So the probability is 0.

Problem 26. Solution: B.

Let the total number of marbles be t, the number of red marbles be r, and the
number of blue marbles be b.
r
 
1   1  3r = t (1)
t 3
b
 
1   1  5b = t (2)
t 5
Solving (1) and (2): 3r = 5b (3)
We know that r and b are both positive integers. So we have b = 3 and r = 5.
t = 5b = 15 or a multiple of 15. So B is the only answer.

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AMC 8 Preparation Chapter 24 Probability

Problem 27. Solution: A.

Let the number of red glass beads be rg, and the number of blue glass beads be bg.
1
The number of wood beads will be (rg  bg ) .
7
rg bg
 6  rg  6bg
1 1
rg  bg  (rg  bg ) rg  bg  (rg  bg )
7 7
1 1
We know that rg  24 . So bg  4 , and (rg  bg )  (24  4)  4 .
7 7
The answer is 24 + 4 + 4 = 32.

Problem 28. Solution: E.

We have two cases:
Case 1: DAX
Case 2: DXA
X represents the letter undetermined.
For each case, we have 6 ways to put another letter.
We only have one way to get DCA.
So the probability is 1/12.

Problem 29. Solution: B.

Let the number of paperback books be p.
p 5 5
  p  x.
x 12 12
5 7
The number of hardback books is x  p  x  x  x.
12 12

Problem 30. Solution: A.

The sum of the first and the second spinners is odd. If the final sum is odd, the
third spinner needs to show an even number.
The probability that the third spinner shows an even number is 1/3. So the answer
is 1/3.

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AMC 8 Preparation Chapter 24 Probability

Problem 31. Solution: B.

12 
We have    66 line segments.
2 
We have 12 line segments with the distance of 2 :

The answer is then 12/66 = 2/11.

Problem 32. Solution: D.

We have five positions as follows.

The total number of ways to seat them is 5! = 120.

For position A, we can seat boy 1, boy 2 or boy 3. So we get 3 ways.
For position E, after position A is occupied, we have 2 ways.
After positions A and E are occupied, we have 3! Ways to seat one boy and two
girls.
So we get 3 × 2 × 3! = 36 ways such that the students at the ends of the row are
both boys.
The answer is then P = 36/120 = 3/10.

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