Question

There are 15 tables set up for a banquet, of which 3 have purple tablecloths.What is the probability that a randomly selected table will have a purple tablecloth?Write your answer as a fraction or whole number.P(purple)

Answer 1

To determine the probability of an event "A" you have to calculate the quotient of the number of favorable outcomes for A and the number of possible outcomes.

`P(A)=\frac{nº\text{favorable outcomes}}{nº\text{ of possible outcomes}}`

Let the event of interest be A: the table has a purple tablecloth.

The favorable outcomes for this event will be the number of tables that have a purple tablecloth, in this case there are 3 tables with purple tablecloth.

The number of possible outcomes is given by the total number of tables that are set up, which are 15 tables.

You can calculate the probability of A as follows:

`\begin{gathered} P(A)=\frac{nº\text{ tables with purple tablecloth}}{nº\text{ tables}} \\ P(A)=(3)/(15)=(1)/(5) \end{gathered}`

The probability of selecting a table at random and that it will have purple tablecloth is 1/5