Question

A golf ball is selected at random from a golf bag. If the golf bag contains 10 balls, 5 red balls, and 3 blue balls, find the probability of the following event: The golf ball is red or blue?

1) 1/3
2) 2/3
3) 3/8
4) 5/8

Answer 1

In Mathematics, to find the probability of selecting a red or blue ball from a bag with 5 red and 3 blue balls out of 10, add the individual probabilities, resulting in a 4/5 chance of selecting a red or blue ball.

Step-by-step explanation:

The subject of the question is Mathematics, specifically the concept of probability. The student asks for the probability of selecting a golf ball that is either red or blue from the golf bag that contains 5 red balls and 3 blue balls out of a total of 10 balls. To find this probability, you add the probability of drawing a red ball to the probability of drawing a blue ball because the two events are mutually exclusive (you cannot draw a ball that is both red and blue simultaneously).

The probability of drawing a red ball, P(Red), is the number of red balls (5) divided by the total number of balls (10):
P(Red) = 5/10 = 1/2.

The probability of drawing a blue ball, P(Blue), is the number of blue balls (3) divided by the total number of balls (10):
P(Blue) = 3/10.

Therefore, the probability of drawing either a red or blue ball, P(Red or Blue), is the sum of both probabilities:
P(Red or Blue) = P(Red) + P(Blue) = 1/2 + 3/10 = 5/10 + 3/10 = 8/10 = 4/5.

So the correct answer is:
2) 4/5.