Question

A shelf has 4 blue pairs of pants, 2 black pairs of pants, 1 white pair of pants, and 3 tan pairs of pants. You randomly choose a pair of pants from the shelf. What is the probability of choosing a blue pair of pants as a percent? - the answer isn’t 60%.

Answer 1

Probability can best be seen as the total number of “successful” outcomes (non blue pants) divided by the total number of possible outcomes (all pants). Normally, you express probability as a fraction (6/10), a ratio (6:10), or a percentage (60%). You could also express the probability as .6, or 6 out of 10.

My thought process: There are 4 pair of blue pants and 6 pair of non-blue pants. When you pick, you have 4 chances (pants) out of 10 chances (pants) of getting blue, and, therefore, 6 chances (pants) out of 10 chances (pants) of getting “not blue”. That is 60%; 6:10; 6/10; .6; or 6 out of 10.