uestion 3

A survey of 80 employees was conducted asking about which meals they regularly eat at the office. Twenty employees eat breakfast at the office, 50 eat lunch, and 15 eat both breakfast and lunch. If an employee is randomly selected from this group, what is the probability of randomly selecting an employee who eat breakfast or lunch at the office? HINT: think mutually exclusive and mutually inclusive formulas. Explain as simplified fraction.

1 answer

To find the probability of randomly selecting an employee who eats either breakfast or lunch at the office, we can apply the principle of inclusion-exclusion.

Let:

  • \( B \) = the number of employees who eat breakfast
  • \( L \) = the number of employees who eat lunch
  • \( B \cap L \) = the number of employees who eat both breakfast and lunch

From the survey, we have:

  • \( B = 20 \) (employees who eat breakfast)
  • \( L = 50 \) (employees who eat lunch)
  • \( B \cap L = 15 \) (employees who eat both)

Using the inclusion-exclusion principle, the number of employees who eat breakfast or lunch is given by:

\[ B \cup L = B + L - B \cap L \]

Substituting the values we have:

\[ B \cup L = 20 + 50 - 15 = 55 \]

So, 55 employees eat either breakfast or lunch.

Now, to find the probability \( P \) of randomly selecting an employee who eats breakfast or lunch, we use the formula:

\[ P(B \cup L) = \frac{B \cup L}{\text{Total number of employees}} = \frac{55}{80} \]

Next, we can simplify this fraction:

\[ \frac{55}{80} = \frac{11}{16} \]

Therefore, the probability of randomly selecting an employee who eats breakfast or lunch at the office is:

\[ \boxed{\frac{11}{16}} \]