At a local high school with 200 female students, 98 play field hockey, 62 play volleyball, and 40 play both. Find the probability that a female student selected at random plays field hockey or volleyball. Write your answer as a simplified fraction.(1 point)

Question

The probability that a female student plays field hockey or volleyball is
.

Answer 1

To find the probability that a female student selected at random plays either field hockey or volleyball, we can use the principle of inclusion-exclusion.

Let:

• \( A \) be the set of students who play field hockey.
• \( B \) be the set of students who play volleyball.

We have the following information:

• \( |A| = 98 \) (students who play field hockey)
• \( |B| = 62 \) (students who play volleyball)
• \( |A \cap B| = 40 \) (students who play both sports)

Using the inclusion-exclusion principle, the number of students who play either field hockey or volleyball is given by:

\[ |A \cup B| = |A| + |B| - |A \cap B| \]

Substituting the values:

\[ |A \cup B| = 98 + 62 - 40 = 120 \]

Now, we find the probability that a randomly selected female student plays either field hockey or volleyball:

\[ P(A \cup B) = \frac{|A \cup B|}{\text{Total number of students}} = \frac{120}{200} \]

Now we simplify the fraction:

\[ \frac{120}{200} = \frac{12}{20} = \frac{3}{5} \]

Thus, the probability that a female student plays field hockey or volleyball is

\[ \boxed{\frac{3}{5}}. \]