Question 1

There are four presidential candidates in a country. A street survey was conducted asking 2,500 registered voters which candidate they will vote for in the coming election. The table summarizes the results of the survey.

Presidential Candidates Number of Supporters

Candidate 1 250

Candidate 2 1,250

Candidate 3 450

Candidate 4 550



a. What is the probability of randomly selecting a person who will vote for Candidate 1 or 2?

Answer as %.



b. If 1,000 more voters are surveyed, how many of those 1000 will likely prefer Candidate 3 or 4? Explain your ONE answer and show your work, we are looking for number of people not a fraction or %.



Question 2

A basket of fruits contains 20 apples, 4 watermelon slices, and 12 oranges. If a piece of fruit is to be selected randomly from the box, what is the probability of selecting an apple or an orange? Explain the process as simplified fraction answer.

Question 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

Question 1

a. What is the probability of randomly selecting a person who will vote for Candidate 1 or 2?

To find the probability of randomly selecting a person who will vote for Candidate 1 or Candidate 2, we first need to sum the number of supporters of both candidates.

  • Number of supporters for Candidate 1: 250
  • Number of supporters for Candidate 2: 1,250

Total supporters for Candidate 1 and 2 = 250 + 1,250 = 1,500

Next, we calculate the total number of registered voters surveyed, which is 2,500.

The probability \( P \) of selecting a person who will vote for Candidate 1 or 2 is given by the formula:

\[ P(\text{Candidate 1 or 2}) = \frac{\text{Number of supporters for Candidate 1 or 2}}{\text{Total number of voters}} = \frac{1,500}{2,500} \]

Calculating this gives:

\[ P(\text{Candidate 1 or 2}) = \frac{1,500}{2,500} = 0.6 \]

To express it as a percentage, we multiply by 100:

\[ 0.6 \times 100 = 60% \]

Answer: 60%


b. If 1,000 more voters are surveyed, how many of those 1,000 will likely prefer Candidate 3 or 4?

To predict how many of the additional 1,000 voters will prefer Candidate 3 or Candidate 4, we first find the total number of supporters for Candidates 3 and 4.

  • Number of supporters for Candidate 3: 450
  • Number of supporters for Candidate 4: 550

Total supporters for Candidate 3 and 4 = 450 + 550 = 1,000

Now, we need to calculate the probability that a randomly selected voter from the original survey will prefer Candidate 3 or 4:

\[ P(\text{Candidate 3 or 4}) = \frac{\text{Number of supporters for Candidate 3 or 4}}{\text{Total number of voters}} = \frac{1,000}{2,500} = 0.4 \]

Now, we use this probability to estimate the number of supporters for Candidate 3 or 4 among the additional 1,000 voters:

\[ \text{Expected number of supporters} = P(\text{Candidate 3 or 4}) \times 1,000 = 0.4 \times 1,000 = 400 \]

Answer: 400


Question 2

To find the probability of selecting an apple or an orange from the basket of fruits, we first determine the total number of fruits in the basket.

  • Number of apples: 20
  • Number of watermelon slices: 4
  • Number of oranges: 12

Total fruits = 20 apples + 4 watermelon slices + 12 oranges = 36 fruits

Now, we calculate the total number of apples and oranges:

Total apples and oranges = 20 + 12 = 32

The probability \( P \) of selecting an apple or an orange is given by:

\[ P(\text{apple or orange}) = \frac{\text{Total apples and oranges}}{\text{Total fruits}} = \frac{32}{36} \]

We can simplify the fraction:

\[ \frac{32}{36} = \frac{8}{9} \quad (\text{divide both numerator and denominator by 4}) \]

Answer: \(\frac{8}{9}\)


Question 3

To find the probability of selecting an employee who eats breakfast or lunch, we need to use the principle of inclusion-exclusion since some employees eat both meals.

Let:

  • \( A \) = Number of employees who eat breakfast = 20
  • \( B \) = Number of employees who eat lunch = 50
  • \( C \) = Number of employees who eat both breakfast and lunch = 15

Using the inclusion-exclusion principle, the total number of employees who eat either breakfast or lunch is calculated as:

\[ P(A \cup B) = P(A) + P(B) - P(A \cap B) \]

Where \( P(A) \) is the probability of choosing someone who eats breakfast, \( P(B) \) for lunch, and \( P(A \cap B) \) for both.

Calculating \( P(A \cup B) \):

Total who eat breakfast or lunch: \[ \text{Total} = A + B - C = 20 + 50 - 15 = 55 \]

Now, the probability \( P \):

\[ P(\text{Breakfast or Lunch}) = \frac{\text{Total eating Breakfast or Lunch}}{\text{Total number of employees}} = \frac{55}{80} \]

We can simplify:

\[ \frac{55}{80} = \frac{11}{16} \quad (\text{divide both by 5}) \]

Answer: \(\frac{11}{16}\)