Question

A survey among American adults concluded that 20% of adults believe Elvis is still alive, 10% believe they've been abducted by aliens, and 4% believe that both Elvis is still alive and they've been abducted by aliens. What is the probability that a randomly chosen adult believes that Elvis is still alive or they've been abducted by aliens.

Answer 1

`P(Alive\ or\ Aliens) = 26\%`

Explanation:

Given

`P(Alive) = 20\%`

`P(Aliens) = 10\%`

`P(Alive\ and\ Aliens) = 4\%`

Required

Determine
`P(Alive\ or\ Aliens)`

From laws of probabilities:

`P(A\ or\ B) = P(A) + P(B) - P(A\ and\ B)`

In this case:

`P(Alive\ or\ Aliens) = P(Alive) + P(Aliens) - P(Alive\ and\ Aliens)`

`P(Alive\ or\ Aliens) = 20\% + 10\% - 4\%`

`P(Alive\ or\ Aliens) = 26\%`