Probability

Help Questions

SSAT Elementary Level Quantitative › Probability

Questions 1 - 10
1

Malcolm is on vacation with his family. He packed five shirts and five pairs of shorts. There are three white shirts, one black shirt, and one blue shirt. There are two blue pairs of shorts, one yellow pair of shorts, one black pair of shorts, and one red pair of shorts. If Malcolm reached into his suitcase and pulled out an article of clothing, what is the probability that it is either blue or black?

Explanation

We know that there are 10 articles of clothing (5 shirts and 5 pairs of shorts). First, you need to determine how many of these shirts and shorts are either blue or black. The problem says Malcolm has one black shirt, one blue shirt, two blue pairs of shorts, and one black pair of shorts.

This means he has a 5 in 10 chance of picking clothing that is blue or black.

2

Malcolm is on vacation with his family. He packed five shirts and five pairs of shorts. There are three white shirts, one black shirt, and one blue shirt. There are two blue pairs of shorts, one yellow pair of shorts, one black pair of shorts, and one red pair of shorts. If Malcolm reached into his suitcase and pulled out an article of clothing, what is the probability that it is either blue or black?

Explanation

We know that there are 10 articles of clothing (5 shirts and 5 pairs of shorts). First, you need to determine how many of these shirts and shorts are either blue or black. The problem says Malcolm has one black shirt, one blue shirt, two blue pairs of shorts, and one black pair of shorts.

This means he has a 5 in 10 chance of picking clothing that is blue or black.

3

Malcolm is on vacation with his family. He packed five shirts and five pairs of shorts. There are three white shirts, one black shirt, and one blue shirt. There are two blue pairs of shorts, one yellow pair of shorts, one black pair of shorts, and one red pair of shorts. If Malcolm reached into his suitcase and pulled out an article of clothing, what is the probability that it is either blue or black?

Explanation

We know that there are 10 articles of clothing (5 shirts and 5 pairs of shorts). First, you need to determine how many of these shirts and shorts are either blue or black. The problem says Malcolm has one black shirt, one blue shirt, two blue pairs of shorts, and one black pair of shorts.

This means he has a 5 in 10 chance of picking clothing that is blue or black.

4

Find the probability of drawing a 3 from a deck of cards.

Explanation

To find the probability of an event, we will use the following formula:

So, given the event of drawing a 3, we can calculate the following:

\text{number of ways event can happen} = 4

Because there are 4 ways we can draw a 3 from the deck:

  • 3 of clubs
  • 3 of spades
  • 3 of diamonds
  • 3 of hearts

Now, we can calculate the following:

\text{total number of possible outcomes} = 52

Because there are 52 cards we could potentially draw from a deck of cards.

Knowing this, we can substitute into the formula. We get

Therefore, the probability of drawing a 3 from a deck of cards is .

5

Find the probability of drawing a 3 from a deck of cards.

Explanation

To find the probability of an event, we will use the following formula:

So, given the event of drawing a 3, we can calculate the following:

\text{number of ways event can happen} = 4

Because there are 4 ways we can draw a 3 from the deck:

  • 3 of clubs
  • 3 of spades
  • 3 of diamonds
  • 3 of hearts

Now, we can calculate the following:

\text{total number of possible outcomes} = 52

Because there are 52 cards we could potentially draw from a deck of cards.

Knowing this, we can substitute into the formula. We get

Therefore, the probability of drawing a 3 from a deck of cards is .

6

Find the probability of drawing a 3 from a deck of cards.

Explanation

To find the probability of an event, we will use the following formula:

So, given the event of drawing a 3, we can calculate the following:

\text{number of ways event can happen} = 4

Because there are 4 ways we can draw a 3 from the deck:

  • 3 of clubs
  • 3 of spades
  • 3 of diamonds
  • 3 of hearts

Now, we can calculate the following:

\text{total number of possible outcomes} = 52

Because there are 52 cards we could potentially draw from a deck of cards.

Knowing this, we can substitute into the formula. We get

Therefore, the probability of drawing a 3 from a deck of cards is .

7

Joey has 10 shirts on his bed. 4 shirts are blue, 3 shirts are purple, 2 shirts are green, and 1 shirt is white. What is the chance that Joey randomly picks a purple shirt from the shirts on his bed?

Explanation

To find the probability of picking a purple shirt from the pile of shirts on Joey's bed, we need to set up a fraction like this:

The problem tells us that Joey has 3 purple shirts, so we can put that in the numerator. We are also told that the total number of shirts on Joey's bed is 10, so 10 goes on the bottom of the fraction. Therefore, Joey has a chance of picking a purple shirt.

8

Joey has 10 shirts on his bed. 4 shirts are blue, 3 shirts are purple, 2 shirts are green, and 1 shirt is white. What is the chance that Joey randomly picks a purple shirt from the shirts on his bed?

Explanation

To find the probability of picking a purple shirt from the pile of shirts on Joey's bed, we need to set up a fraction like this:

The problem tells us that Joey has 3 purple shirts, so we can put that in the numerator. We are also told that the total number of shirts on Joey's bed is 10, so 10 goes on the bottom of the fraction. Therefore, Joey has a chance of picking a purple shirt.

9

Joey has 10 shirts on his bed. 4 shirts are blue, 3 shirts are purple, 2 shirts are green, and 1 shirt is white. What is the chance that Joey randomly picks a purple shirt from the shirts on his bed?

Explanation

To find the probability of picking a purple shirt from the pile of shirts on Joey's bed, we need to set up a fraction like this:

The problem tells us that Joey has 3 purple shirts, so we can put that in the numerator. We are also told that the total number of shirts on Joey's bed is 10, so 10 goes on the bottom of the fraction. Therefore, Joey has a chance of picking a purple shirt.

10

Ethan has a bag with 20 of his favorite marbles. He has 5 blue marbles, 7 red marbles, 2 white ones, 4 black ones, and 2 multi-colored marbles. What is the probability that he randomly picks a red marble out of the bag?

Explanation

The probability is expressed as the circumstance out of the whole number available.

The number of marbles that are red is 7, and the whole number of marbles is 20.

Therefore the probability is

.

Page 1 of 11