Question

On a certain airline, customers are assigned a row number when they purchase their ticket, but the four seats within the row are first come, first served during boarding. If Karen and Georgia end up with random seats in the same row on a sold-out flight, what is the probability that they sit next to each other?

Answer 1

The probability that they sit next to each other is 50%.

Explanation:

Consider the provided information.

It is given that there are four seats within the row are first come, first served during boarding.

There are 4 seats and 2 customers (Karen and Georgia)

The total number of ways in which Karen and Georgia can sit is:
`^4C_2`

Now if they will sit together, then consider Karen and Georgia as a single unit.

Thus, the number of ways in which they can sit together is:
`^3C_1`

The required probability is:

`P=(^3C_1)/(^4C_2) \\\\P=(3)/(6)\\\\P=(1)/(2)`

Hence, the probability that they sit next to each other is 50%.