SOLUTION: Sam has a bucket of blocks. He has 3 yellow blocks, 10 blue blocks, 6 green blocks, 8 red blocks, and 3 purple blocks. What is the probability he picks a red block?

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Question 481138: Sam has a bucket of blocks. He has 3 yellow blocks, 10 blue blocks, 6 green blocks, 8 red blocks, and 3 purple blocks.
What is the probability he picks a red block?
Found 3 solutions by stanbon, ewatrrr, bucky:
Answer by stanbon(75887) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Sam has a bucket of blocks. He has 3 yellow blocks, 10 blue blocks, 6 green blocks, 8 red blocks, and 3 purple blocks.
What is the probabilty he picks a red block?
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P(red) = 8/(30) = 4/15
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Cheers,
Stan H.
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Answer by ewatrrr(24785) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
 

Hi,

30 Blocks: 3-yellow,10-blue,6-green,8-red,3-purple

Picks one:

 P(red) = 8/30 = 4/15

Answer by bucky(2189) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The total population of the blocks in the bucket is the sum of the numbers of blocks of each color. In other words, the total population is:
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3 yellow + 10 blue + 6 green + 8 red + 3 purple = 30 blocks
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The 8 red blocks represent the number of chances to pick a red block from the total. Therefore, if Sam cannot see the color of the blocks, in one pick he has an 8 in 30 chance of drawing a red block from the 30 possible choices.
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That is the answer to this problem. The probability of selecting a red block is 8 in 30. It may also be expressed in fractional form as:
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8%2F30
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and because the both the numerator and denominator are divisible by 2, this fraction can be reduced to the equivalent form of:
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4%2F15
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This means that Sam has a 4 in 15 chance of drawing a red block.
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And in still another way of expressing this, by dividing the denominators of these two fractions into their respective numerators you can change the fractions 8%2F30 and 4%2F15 to their common decimal form of 0.266667. Then you can say that the probability of drawing a red block is 0.266667. You can also convert this to percent by moving the decimal point two places to the right so you can say that there is a 26.6667% probability of drawing a red block in one one random pick from the 30 blocks.
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Hope this helps you to understand the problem.
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