Difficult Math Problem #95 - Probability

800guy wrote:from diff math problems doc. oa coming when some people answer with explanations..

From a group of 3 boys and 3 girls, 4 children are to be randomly selected. What is the probability that equal numbers of boys and girls will be selected?

A. 1/10

B. 4/9

C. 1/2

D. 3/5

E. 2/3

We are given that from a group of 3 boys and 3 girls, 4 children are to be randomly selected. We need to determine the probability that equal numbers of boys and girls will be selected, that is, the probability that two boys and two girls are selected.

We can use combinations to determine the number of favorable outcomes (that 2 boys and 2 girls are selected) and the total number of outcomes (that 4 children are selected from 6 children).

Let’s first determine the number of ways we can select 2 boys from 3 boys and 2 girls from 3 girls.

# of ways to select 2 boys from a total of 3 boys: 3C2 = 3

# of ways to select 2 girls from a total of 3 girls: 3C2 = 3

Thus, the number of ways to select 2 girls and 2 boys = 3 x 3 = 9.

Now we can determine the total number of ways to select 4 children from a total of 6 children.

6C4 = (6 x 5 x 4 x 3)/(4 x 3 x 2 x 1) = 3 x 5 = 15

Thus, the probability of selecting an equal number of girls and boys is 9/15 = 3/5.

Answer: D