Question

There are five faculty members in a certain academic department. These individuals have 4, 6, 7, 10, and 15 years of teaching experience. Two of these individuals are randomly selected to serve on a personnel review committee. What is the probability that the chosen representatives have a total of at least 16 years of teaching experience

Answer 1

3/5

Explanation:

Probability is the likelihood or chance that an event will occur.

Probability = expected outcome of event/total outcome of event

Given 5 individuals with 4, 6, 7, 10, and 15 years of teaching experience.

Since two of these 5 individuals are randomly selected to serve on a personnel review committee, total possible outcome = 5C2 (randomly selecting 2 personnel out of 5 )

5C2 =
`(5!)/((5-2)!2!)`

`= (5!)/(3!2!)\\ = (5*4*3!)/(3!*2) \\= 10\ possible\ selections\ can\ be\ done`

To get the probability that the chosen representatives have a total of at least 16 years of teaching experience, first we need to find the two values that will give a sum of years greater that or equal to 16 years. The possible combination are as shown;

4+15 = 19years (first reps)

6+10 = 16years (second reps)

6+15 = 21years (third reps)

7+10 = 17 years (fourth reps)

7+15 = 22 years (fifth reps)

10+15 = 25 years (sixth reps)

This shows that there are 6 possible ways to choose the representatives that have a total of at least 16 years of teaching experience

Total outcome = 10

expected outcome = 6

Probability that the chosen representatives have a total of at least 16 years of teaching experience =
`(6)/(10) = (3)/(5)`