Question

From a bag of M&Ms consisting of 3 green, 4 red, 4 yellow, and 3 blue you randomly select 4 M&Ms. Find the probability that when you open your hand, you find only yellow or blue colors. Give your answer to three significant decimal places.

Answer 1

0.399%

Explanation:

Step 1: The total M&Ms in the bag is: 3 green, 4 red, 4 yellow, and 3 blue

= 3 + 4 + 4 +3 = 12

Step 2: When we select 4 M&Ms, The total number of random sample spaces are : 14C4 = 1001 (please use casio fx570 ES)

In other to have only yellow or blue colors, it means we have 2 cases:

- Only yellow when we pick 4, so the result is: 1 (4 yellows)

- Only blue when we pick 4, so the result is: 3 (3 blues + 1 green) , (3 blues + 1 red) + (3 blues + 1 yellow)

Step 3: Take the total number of results divided by the total number of sample spaces, we have: (1+3) /1001*100% = 0.399%