1.4. Mutually Exclusive Events http://www.ck12.org
1.4 Mutually Exclusive Events
Here you’ll learn to represent mutually exclusive events with Venn diagrams and calculate probabilities of mutually
exclusive events.
Suppose you select a blueberry muffin for breakfast at your local bakery. Ten minutes later, after you’ve gobbled
down the muffin, you’re still hungry so next you select something a little healthier than the muffin, maybe a whole
grain bagel to take for the road. Do you think these events are mutually exclusive or mutually inclusive?
Watch This
First watch this video to learn about mutually exclusive events.
MEDIA
Click image to the left for more content.CK-12 Foundation: Chapter1MutuallyExclusiveEventsA
Then watch this video to see some examples.
MEDIA
Click image to the left for more content.CK-12 Foundation: Chapter1MutuallyExclusiveEventsB
Guidance
Two eventsAandBthat cannot occur at the same time aremutually exclusive events. When we add probability
calculations of events described by this term, we can apply the wordor(∪). Mutually exclusive events have no
common outcomes. See in the diagram below thatP(AandB) =0. Notice that there is no intersection between
the possible outcomes of eventAand the possible outcomes of eventB. For example, if you were asked to pick a
number between 1 and 10, you cannot pick a number that is both even and odd. These events are mutually exclusive.