Question

Stacy and clinton are setting up the community center for a freshman orientation. they set up 8 rectangular tables with 6 chairs each and 5 round tables with 4 chairs each. the chairs are randomly numbered starting with 1 and the freshman will be randomly assigned a seat number.

what is the probability that the first freshman to arrive will be seated at a round table?
a 1/20
b 12/17
c 5/17
d 5/13

Answer 1

To find the probability of the first freshman being seated at a round table, we calculate the fraction of round table chairs (20) over the total chairs (68), which simplifies to 5/17.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question asks for the probability that the first freshman to arrive will be seated at a round table. To find this, we first calculate the total number of chairs available and then determine how many of those are at round tables. There are 8 rectangular tables with 6 chairs each, so that makes 8 x 6 = 48 chairs at rectangular tables. There are also 5 round tables with 4 chairs each, adding up to 5 x 4 = 20 chairs at round tables.

The total number of chairs is therefore 48 (rectangular) + 20 (round) = 68 chairs. The probability that the first freshman to arrive will be seated at a round table is the number of round table chairs divided by the total number of chairs, which is 20/68. Simplifying this fraction we get 5/17.

Therefore, the correct probability is 5/17, which corresponds to option c.