6th Grade Math Textbook, Progress

Update your skills. See page 16.

Compound Events

8-14

There are 8 president/vice president possible outcomes.

You can also find the number of possible outcomes

by using the Counting Principle.

Another way of finding possible

outcomes is to make a table.

The Counting Principle

If one event has mpossible outcomes and a second event has

npossible outcomes, then there are m
ntotal possible outcomes

for the two events together.

president vice president president/vice president outcomes

4 
 2  8

In a school election there are 4 candidates for president

and 2 candidates for vice president. How many possible

president/vice president outcomes are there?

Finding the number of possible president/vice president

outcomes is an example of a compound event. A compound

event is a combination of two or more single events.

Label the candidates for president P1, P2, P3, and P4.

Label the candidates for vice president V1 and V2.

V1

V2

P1

President Vice Outcome

President

P2

P3

P4

(P1, V1)

(P1, V2)

V1

V2

(P2, V1)

(P2, V2)

V1

V2

(P3, V1)

(P3, V2)

V1

V2

(P4, V1)

(P4, V2)

P1 (P1, V1) (P1, V2)

P2 (P2, V1) (P2, V2)

P3 (P3, V1) (P3, V2)

P4 (P4, V1) (P4, V2)

V1 V2

Vice President

President

One way of finding possible outcomes

is to draw a tree diagram.

3.1

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