There are 25 balls in a jar. Twelve (12) balls are red, 10 balls are blue, and 3 balls are white. Which of the following describes the likelihood of randomly picking a white ball?

Question

very unlikely
likely
less likely than not
impossible

Answer 1

To determine the likelihood of randomly picking a white ball from the jar, we can look at the number of white balls compared to the total number of balls.

In the jar, there are:

• 12 red balls
• 10 blue balls
• 3 white balls

Total number of balls = 12 + 10 + 3 = 25.

Now, the probability of picking a white ball is calculated by dividing the number of white balls by the total number of balls:

Probability of picking a white ball = Number of white balls / Total number of balls = 3 / 25.

This can be interpreted as follows:

• 3 out of 25 means there is a presence of white balls, but it is a small proportion.
• Therefore, the likelihood of picking a white ball is "less likely than not" because 3 is less than half of 25.

So, the correct answer is less likely than not.