Question

A paper clip is randomly selected from a container with black clips and white clips and thrown away. Then another random selection is made from the remaining clips. Is that dependent or independent ?

Answer 1

This is an example of dependent events because the selection of the first clip affects the probability of selecting a certain color on the second clip. Specifically, if the first clip selected is black, then the probability of selecting a black clip again decreases because there are fewer black clips remaining in the container. Similarly, if the first clip selected is white, then the probability of selecting a white clip again also decreases because there are fewer white clips remaining.