Question

Alexis wants to buy $500 worth of new clothes before school starts. She decides to have a garage sale to earn the money for the clothes. She hopes to sell her comic book collection for $200, stuffed toys for $100, a bicycle for $50, and a few knicknacks from her room for $250. The probabilities that her neighbors want to buy the stuff Alexis is selling are distributed as shown in the table.

P(X) Probability
Comics

Toys

Bikes

Knicknacks

What is Alexis's expected garage sale income, and how much more would she need to earn to break even?

A.
The expected income is $150, and Alexis would need $350 more to break even.

B.
The expected income is $600, and Alexis would need $100 less to break even.

C.
The expected income is $300, and Alexis would need $200 more to break even.

D.
The expected income is $178.50, and Alexis would need $321.50 more to break even.

Answer 1

If each item has probability 0.5 of being sold, the expected income is
200(0.5)+100(0.5)+50(0.5)+250(0.5)=300.
She needs 500−300 = 200 more to break even.

Answer: C.