Suppose that one voter in the 2010 UK General Election was selected
at random. The probability that the person voted for the
Conservative Party was 0.36, the probability that the person voted for
the Labour Party was 0.29, and the probability that the person voted
for the Liberal Democrat Party was 0.23. What is the probability that
the person voted for one of the parties that subsequently formed the
coalition government, namely the Conservative Party or the Liberal
Democrat Party?
Note that your 3 probabilities do not add up to 1, thus other parties must also have received votes
Your want the prob(CP OR L)
= .36+.23 = .59
To find the probability that the person voted for one of the parties that formed the coalition government (Conservative Party or Liberal Democrat Party), we need to add the individual probabilities of voting for each party.
The probability of voting for the Conservative Party is 0.36, and the probability of voting for the Liberal Democrat Party is 0.23.
To find the total probability, we simply add these two probabilities together:
0.36 + 0.23 = 0.59
Therefore, the probability that the person voted for one of the parties that formed the coalition government is 0.59.