Use the table to answer the question.

Question

Plant Types A B C D E
Number of Seedlings 100 140 80 60 40
A farmer conducted an inventory on his two square kilometers of rainforest; the results are in the table. He plans on randomly selecting a seedling to experiment on when he goes back to the forest. What is the probability that he will randomly pick a type B
plant? Write your answer in the simplest form of a fraction.

(1 point)

Answer 1

To find the probability of randomly selecting a type B plant, we first need to determine the total number of seedlings and then find the proportion that type B represents.

From the table, the number of seedlings for each plant type is as follows:

• Type A: 100
• Type B: 140
• Type C: 80
• Type D: 60
• Type E: 40

Now, let's calculate the total number of seedlings:

\[ \text{Total seedlings} = 100 + 140 + 80 + 60 + 40 = 520 \]

Next, we find the number of type B seedlings, which is 140.

Now, the probability (P) of selecting a type B plant is given by the formula:

\[ P(\text{type B}) = \frac{\text{Number of type B seedlings}}{\text{Total number of seedlings}} = \frac{140}{520} \]

Next, we simplify the fraction \(\frac{140}{520}\). We can divide both the numerator and denominator by 20:

\[ \frac{140 \div 20}{520 \div 20} = \frac{7}{26} \]

Thus, the probability that the farmer will randomly pick a type B plant is:

\[ \boxed{\frac{7}{26}} \]