Question

John has 6 pancils, 3 blue pens, 5 black pens, and 2 red pens in a cup on his desk Without looking, John pulls a writing utensil out of the cup. Enter the probability that John pulls out a pencil.​

Answer 1

john has a 6 out of 10 chance of picking a pencil

Answer 2

P=37.5%

Explanation:

Frequentist Probability

The probability of an outcome is defined as the frequency of the number of times the outcome occurs relative to the number of times that it could have occurred.

The equation to calculate the probability is:

`\displaystyle P=(f)/(n)`

Where f is the number of favorable cases and n is the total cases.

John has in a cup of his desk:

6 pencils

3 blue+5 black+2 red pens=10 pens

Picking one of the utensils from the cup can be done in 16 different ways. That is the total number of cases n=16

The outcome of taking a pencil can be done in 6 ways. That is the number of favorable cases. f=6.

The probability is:

`\displaystyle P=(6)/(16)`

Simplifying:

`\displaystyle P=(3)/(8)`

Or expressed as a percentage:

P=3/8*100%

P=37.5%