Use the table to answer the question.

Question

This table shows the number of seedlings for each plant type (A, B, C, D, and E).
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 calculate the fraction corresponding to type B.

1. Sum the number of seedlings for all plant types:

   • Number of seedlings for A: 100
   • Number of seedlings for B: 140
   • Number of seedlings for C: 80
   • Number of seedlings for D: 60
   • Number of seedlings for E: 40

   Total number of seedlings = 100 + 140 + 80 + 60 + 40 = 420

2. The number of seedlings for plant type B is 140.

3. The probability \( P \) of selecting a type B plant is given by the formula: \[ P(B) = \frac{\text{Number of type B seedlings}}{\text{Total number of seedlings}} = \frac{140}{420} \]

4. Simplifying the fraction \( \frac{140}{420} \):

   • Both numerator and denominator can be divided by 140: \[ \frac{140 \div 140}{420 \div 140} = \frac{1}{3} \]

Therefore, the probability that the farmer will randomly pick a type B plant is \(\frac{1}{3}\).