A desk drawer has 20 pens: 4 fountain pens, 10 gel pens, and 6 ballpoint pens. What is the probability of randomly choosing a gel pen, replacing it, and then choosing a fountain pen?(1 point)

Responses

1/2
Start Fraction 1 over 2 End Fraction

7/10
Start Fraction 7 over 10 End Fraction

1/5
Start Fraction 1 over 5 End Fraction

1/10
Start Fraction 1 over 10 End Fraction

1 answer

To find the probability of randomly choosing a gel pen and then a fountain pen (with replacement), we can calculate this in two steps.

  1. Calculating the probability of choosing a gel pen:

    • There are 10 gel pens out of a total of 20 pens. \[ P(\text{gel pen}) = \frac{10}{20} = \frac{1}{2} \]
  2. Calculating the probability of choosing a fountain pen:

    • There are 4 fountain pens out of a total of 20 pens. \[ P(\text{fountain pen}) = \frac{4}{20} = \frac{1}{5} \]

Since the selections are independent (due to the replacement), we multiply the probabilities of the two events:

\[ P(\text{gel pen and then fountain pen}) = P(\text{gel pen}) \times P(\text{fountain pen}) = \frac{1}{2} \times \frac{1}{5} = \frac{1}{10} \]

Thus, the probability of randomly choosing a gel pen, replacing it, and then choosing a fountain pen is:

\[ \frac{1}{10} \]

The correct answer is:

1/10 (Start Fraction 1 over 10 End Fraction).