Question

Three coins are tossed once. Let A denote the event ‘three heads show”, B denote the event “two heads and one tail show”. C denote the event “three tails show” and D denote the event ‘a head shows on the first coin”. Which events are
(i) mutually exclusive? (ii) simple? (iii) compound?

Answer 1

When three coins are tossed, the sample space is given by
S = {HHH, HHT, HTH, HTT, THH, THT, TTH, TTT}
Accordingly,
A = {HHH}
B = {HHT, HTH, THH}
C = {TTT}
D = {HHH, HHT, HTH, HTT}
We now observe that
A ∩ B =Φ, A ∩ C =Φ, A ∩ D = {HHH} ≠ Φ
B ∩ C =Φ, B ∩ D = {HHT, {HTH} ≠ Φ
C ∩ D = Φ
(i) Event A and B; event A and C; event B and C; and event C and D are all mutually exclusive.

(ii) If an event has only one sample point of a sample space, it is called a simple event. Thus, A and C are simple events.
(iii) If an event has more than one sample point of a sample space, it is called a compound event.
Thus, B and D are compound events.