Question

A bag of cereal contains 12 blue marsh mellows, 16 red marshmellows , and 8 orange marsh mellows.If a marshmellow is picked from the bag at random, what is the probability that it is a red marsh mellow? Answers have been rounded to the tenths place.

Answer 1

0.4 (decimal)

4/9 (fraction)

Explanation:

Probability calculates the likelihood of an event occurring. The likelihood of the event occurring lies between 0 and 1. It is zero if the event does not occur and 1 if the event occurs.

For example, the probability that it would rain on Friday is between o and 1. If it rains, a value of one is attached to the event. If it doesn't a value of zero is attached to the event.

Probability a red marshmallow is picked = number of red marshmallows in the bag / sum of marshmallows in the bag

sum of marshmallows in the bag = 12 + 16 + 8 = 36

Probability a red marshmallow is picked = 16/36

To transform to the simplest form. divide both the numerator and the denominator by 4

= 4/9

to convert to decimal, divide 4 by 9 = 0.4444

0.4 to the nearest tenth

the tenth is the first number after the decimal place. To convert to the nearest tenth, look at the number after the tenth (the hundredth). If the number is greater or equal to 5, add 1 to the tenth figure. If this is not the case, add zero