Answer:
0.3756
Explanation:
I believe this is a combinatorics probability problem.
We first figure out in how many ways we can choose 3 cats out of 14 cats
Then we figure out how many ways we can choose 2 dogs out of 7 dogs
The total number of ways to select 3 cats and 2 dogs will be the product of these two
We then figure out in how many ways we can select 5 animals out of a total of 21 animals
The product we computed divided by the above number will give the probability
The number of ways we can choose k items out of n items is given by nCk i.e n Choose k
The formula is rather complicated but almost all calculators should be able to compute this given n and k
Let's deal with the selection of 3 cats from the population of 14 cats
This is given by 14C₃ which works out to 364
Number of ways for selecting 2 dogs from 7 dogs = 7C₂ = 21
Number of ways of selecting 5 animals from 21 = 21C₅ = 20349
The probability of selecting 3 cats and 2 dogs is therefore:
That, I believe is the answer. Please let me know if it is correct and if you need more info.