Question

The probability that a student chosen at random from a class has ginger hair is 5/14.

The probability that they have blonde hair is 9/28.

What is the probability that a student chosen from the class at random has either ginger or blonde hair?
Give your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.

Answer 1

Answer: The probability of a random student to have either ginger or blonde hair is 19/28.

Step-by-step explanation: Before anything is done, let's look and see what information the problem gives us and what we need to find out. We know that there's a 5/14 chance for a student to be ginger, and a 9/28 chance for them to be blonde. We need to find out the combined chance, as we want to know what the chances are for a student to have either hair color.

In order to do this, all we need to find is the sum of both fractions. Because the fractions have different denominators, we need to change one of them to match the other. 14 multiplied by 2 is equal to 28.

If we multiply both the numerator and denominator of 5/14 by 2, we get 10/28. Now, all we have to do is add that to 9/28. When we do that, we get 19/28.

19/28 cannot be simplified, so it is our final answer. Hope this helps!