Final answer:
The color most likely to be picked is black, as there are eight black balls and only one white ball, giving a probability of 8 in 9 for picking a black ball as opposed to 1 in 9 for a white ball.
Step-by-step explanation:
When deciding which color is most likely to be picked from a total of nine balls, where eight are black and one is white, we must look at the probabilities. The likelihood of picking a ball is directly related to the number of balls of that color. There are a total of 8 black balls, which means that each black ball has a 1 in 9 chance of being picked, but because there are 8 black balls, the overall chance of picking a black ball increases to 8 in 9. Conversely, there is only 1 white ball, so the probability of picking the white ball is 1 in 9. Therefore, it is far more likely than picking a white ball, making black the color that is most likely to be picked from the set given.