Mutually Exclusive Events Worksheets

What Are Mutually Exclusive Events in Probability? In probability, events are defined as the outcomes and the results achieved from the experiments. Where some events bear some resemblance among them, others show no relationship between them. In other words, some events tend to affect the occurrence of other events, while some do not affect the chances of occurrence of other events. Probability broadly entails two types of events: simple and compound. When we conduct a single experiment to achieve a single outcome, it is known as a simple event. However, when more than one outcome is possible, we get a compound event. These compound events are again categorized as mutually exclusive and mutually inclusive events. Mutually exclusive events are those events that cannot happen at the same time. In such situations, when one event takes place, it often hinders the second event from happening. Mutually exclusive events always have different outcomes. For instance, if you get a head on a coin toss, you won't get a tail on the same coin toss. Events like these are mutually exclusive. Another way to understand these events is by rolling of a fair-die. The probability of getting a 4 when you roll a die is 1/6. There is only one 4 on the die, and the possible outcomes are 6. In these cases, it is impossible to get a 4 and 5 together upon rolling a single die. Events like these are known as mutually exclusive events.