A = {2, 3, 4, 5}
B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8}
Two integers will be randomly selected from the sets above, one integer from set A and one integer from set B. What is the probability that the sum of the two integers equal 9?
A) 0.15
B) 0.20
C) 0.25
D) 0.30
E) 0.33
random sum equals 9
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- Brent@GMATPrepNow
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Here's a quick solution.EricKryk wrote:A = {2, 3, 4, 5}
B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8}
Two integers will be randomly selected from the sets above, one integer from set A and one integer from set B. What is the probability that the sum of the two integers equal 9?
A) 0.15
B) 0.20
C) 0.25
D) 0.30
E) 0.33
First randomly select a number from set A.
At this point, you can see that, of the 5 numbers in set B, only 1 of them will combine with your number from set A to create a sum of 9.
So, the probability of getting a sum of must = [spoiler]1/5 = 0.2 = B[/spoiler]
Cheers,
Brent
Last edited by Brent@GMATPrepNow on Mon May 18, 2015 6:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
- Patrick_GMATFix
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Find out the number of pairs that add up to 9 and put that over all possible pairs to find the requested probability. The solution below is taken from the GMATFix App.
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Hi EricKryk,
Probability questions are based on the probability formula:
(Number of ways that you "want") / (Total number of ways possible)
Since it's usually easier to calculate the total number of possibilities, I'll do that first. There are 4 options for set A and 5 options for set B; since we're choosing one option from each, the total possibilities = 4 x 5 = 20
Now, to figure out the number of duos that sum to 9:
2 and 7
3 and 6
4 and 5
5 and 4
4 options that give us what we "want"
4/20 = 1/5 = 20% = .2 = B
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
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Probability questions are based on the probability formula:
(Number of ways that you "want") / (Total number of ways possible)
Since it's usually easier to calculate the total number of possibilities, I'll do that first. There are 4 options for set A and 5 options for set B; since we're choosing one option from each, the total possibilities = 4 x 5 = 20
Now, to figure out the number of duos that sum to 9:
2 and 7
3 and 6
4 and 5
5 and 4
4 options that give us what we "want"
4/20 = 1/5 = 20% = .2 = B
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
- sanju09
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For any integer selected from the 4 in set A, we've 5 ways to club it with an integer from set B. Hence, the total number of ways to select two integers this way are (4)(5) = 20. The favorable ways are 2 + 7, 3 + 6, 4 + 5, and 5 + 4, 4 in number.EricKryk wrote:A = {2, 3, 4, 5}
B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8}
Two integers will be randomly selected from the sets above, one integer from set A and one integer from set B. What is the probability that the sum of the two integers equal 9?
A) 0.15
B) 0.20
C) 0.25
D) 0.30
E) 0.33
Required probability = [spoiler]4/20 or 0.20.
Pick B[/spoiler]
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Sanjeev K Saxena
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- Jeff@TargetTestPrep
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Solution:EricKryk wrote:A = {2, 3, 4, 5}
B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8}
Two integers will be randomly selected from the sets above, one integer from set A and one integer from set B. What is the probability that the sum of the two integers equal 9?
A) 0.15
B) 0.20
C) 0.25
D) 0.30
E) 0.33
To determine the probability that the sum of the two integers will equal 9, we must first recognize that probability = (favorable outcomes)/(total outcomes).
Let's first determine the total number of outcomes. We have 4 numbers in set A, and 5 in set B, and since we are selecting 1 number from each set, the total number of outcomes is 4 x 5 = 20.
For our favorable outcomes, we need to determine the number of ways we can get a number from set A and a number from set B to sum to 9. We are selecting from the following two sets:
A = {2, 3, 4, 5}
B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8}
We will denote the first number as from set A and the second from set B. Here are the pairings that yield a sum of 9:
2,7
3,6
4,5
5,4
We see that there are 4 favorable outcomes. Thus, our probability is 4/20 = 0.25, Answer C.
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