A box contains 36 balls all of the same size and shape ,if y of the balls are red,19 are white and the rest are blue. A ball is picked from the box at random. If the probability that this ball is red is 1/3.Find

a)the value of y
b) the probability that the ball picked is blue

1 answer

a) Let y be the number of red balls. Then, the total number of balls in the box is 36. The probability of picking a red ball is y/36. Since it is given that the probability of picking a red ball is 1/3, we have:

y/36 = 1/3
y = 36/3
y = 12

Therefore, the value of y is 12.

b) Since there are 12 red balls, 19 white balls, and the rest are blue balls in the box, the number of blue balls is:

36 - 12 - 19 = 5

Therefore, the probability of picking a blue ball is:

5/36