Question

Jon's closet has 3 black shirts, 8 blue shirts, 6 black pants and 7 blue pants. He wants to determine the probability of selecting a black piece of clothing OR a shirt from his closet. He solves the probability this way: P(black piece of clothing or a shirt) = P(black piece of clothing) + P(shirt) = 9/24+11/24=20/24=56 Did he solve it correctly?please explain

Answer 1

Jon did determine the probability correctly.

Explanation:

In Jon's closet, there are a total of 24 clothes. Among those pieces of clothing, there are a total of 9 out of 24 clothes that are black. There are also 11 shirts out of 24 clothes.

When a probability has OR in it, it means to add.

11/24 plus 9/24 gives you 20/24.

Therefore, Jon is correct.

Answer 2

17/24

Explanation:

3 + 8 + 6 + 7 = 24 (total number of clothing articles)

3/24+ 6/24 = 9/24 (probability of black clothing)

3/24 + 8/24 = 11/24 (probability of a shirt)

9/24 + 11/24 - 3/24 = 17/24

You would need to subtract the number of black shirts in order to alleviate them from being factored twice in the equation. (there are only 3 black shirts, but Jon counted them once in his black clothing and then again in shirts)