text: Independent means that the outcome of one event does not impact the probability of the outcome of the other event.\n\nThe combined probability of two independent event is the product of the individual probabilities.\n\nThe people problem is not exactly independent.  If you are walking in the same direction, you won't pass the same people again.  If it were truly independent, the probability of the next person being male would be 50%.  Since it is not, the probability is higher than 50%, depending on how many people are in your school.