Question

Of the 42 plays attributed to a playwright, 11 are comedies, 14 are tragedies, and 17 are histories. If one play is selected at random, find the odds in favor of selecting a tragedy The odds in favor of selecting a tragedy are Simplity your answer.)

Answer 1

`\displaystyle(1)/(2)`

Explanation:

The odds in favor is the division of the number of ways the event may occur and the number of ways it cannot occur, so the formula is:

`\displaystyle\frac{\text{Tragedies}}{\text{Non-tragedies}}`

There are 14 tragedies. And since there are 42 plays in total, then the non-tragedies is the result of subtracting the 14 tragedies from 42.

Therefore the odds in favor formula becomes:

`=\displaystyle(14)/(42-14)`

`=\displaystyle(14)/(28)`

Once we simplify we finally get:

`=\displaystyle(1)/(2)`

The odds in favor of selecting a tragedy are:

`\displaystyle(1)/(2)`