SOLUTION: 10. Melinda's lights went out. She has 3 pairs of red socks in her drawer, 2 pairs of black socks, and 5 pairs of white socks. What is the minimum number of pairs she must remove f

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Question 194362: 10. Melinda's lights went out. She has 3 pairs of red socks in her drawer, 2 pairs of black socks, and 5 pairs of white socks. What is the minimum number of pairs she must remove from the drawer to ensure that she has a pair of each color?
A. 3
B. 5
C. 7
D. 9
E. 10
My answer was 7 but is wrong?
Found 2 solutions by jim_thompson5910, mstewart411:
Answer by jim_thompson5910(28593) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Worst case scenario:

She pulls out all 5 pairs of white socks, then all 3 pairs of red socks, and then finally pulls out a pair of black socks. So in the worst case, she has to pull out 5+3+1=9 pairs of socks to guarantee that she has a pair of each color.

Note: this is the worst case because she has to do the most work to guarantee a solution.

Answer by mstewart411(1) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
My answer is 5 because you have 5 whites, 2 blacks, and 3 reds that is a total of 10 in order to choose 3 you would have to put them in order. WWWWW,BB,RRR Mark off untill all gone of each, it cant be 3 because there is a 1/2 chance it will be white each time, and a 1/5 of a chance of getting black 2 of the three times. and a 3/10 of a chance of getting all red. So the chances of having all white are more than the other two. But if you say it is not 7 and it cant be 3, then 5 is a more accurate, and the other answers 9 and 10 are not accurate. They would have had to pull out all of the white but one and that is not possible really without pulling out at least one of the 3 colors as well as the last answer. So 5 is the answer