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A bowl contains 10 jellybeans (four red, one blue and five white). if you pick three jellybeans from the bowl at random and without replacement, what is the probability that exactly two will be red? express your answer as a common fraction.

2 Answers

2 votes

Answer:

3/10

Explanation:

It is exactly as Mrscomputator said, but you have to multiply by 3

What Mrscomputator said, "To find the probability of two jellybeans being red, you will find the probability of getting a red jellybean in two of the three trials. Remember that in one trial, you will need a probability of not getting red.

1 - 4/10 (getting a red)

2 - 3/9 (getting a red)

3 - 6/8 (not getting a red)

If you change the order, the answer will be the same.

1 - 6/10 (not getting a red)

2 - 4/9 (getting a red)

3 - 3/8 (getting a red)

Multiply these together to get the probability.

4/10 x 3/9 x 6/8 = 1/10

The probability is 1/10."

You have cases like:

RRW

RWR

WRR

W is anything but red. So because there is 3 cases, it is what Mrscomputator said times 3. So the answer is 1/10 * 3 = 3/10.

You can also do this:

First, we consider how many total sets of three jellybeans we can select, which is very simply 10 choose 3= 120, if we treat all 10 jellybeans as distinct. Now, if we have exactly 2 red jellybeans, there are 4 choose 2 = 6 pairs of red jellybeans, and 5+1 = 6 choices for the third non-red jellybean. So, there are 6 times 6 = 36 successful outcomes. So our probability is 6 * 6 / 120 = 6 / 20 = 3 / 10.

Hope this helped! :)

User Robnick
by
6.1k points
3 votes

To find the probability of two jellybeans being red, you will find the probability of getting a red jellybean in two of the three trials. Remember that in one trial, you will need a probability of not getting red.


1 - 4/10 (getting a red)

2 - 3/9 (getting a red)

3 - 6/8 (not getting a red)


If you change the order, the answer will be the same.


1 - 6/10 (not getting a red)

2 - 4/9 (getting a red)

3 - 3/8 (getting a red)


Multiply these together to get the probability.


4/10 x 3/9 x 6/8 = 1/10


The probability is 1/10.



User Arjun J Rao
by
5.8k points