Probability

Hi yoshi97,

When posting a GMAT questions, you should make sure to post the 5 answer choices (as sometimes the answers provide a clue as to how to approach the question in the most efficient way possible or a shortcut to avoiding a math-heavy approach).

Here we're told that of all of the U.S. album sales 1989 (Taylor Swift) accounted for 25% of sales, Frozen (Various Artists) accounted for 24.1% of sales, and In the Lonely Hour (Sam Smith) accounted for 8.2% of sales. We're asked for the probability of randomly selecting an album that is something OTHER than these three albums.

These 3 albums account for 25 + 24.1 + 8.2 = 57.3% of the US Album sales, thus there would be a 57.3% chance of randomly selecting one of these albums and a 100 - 57.3 = 42.7% chance of NOT selecting one of these albums.

Final Answer: [spoiler]42.7%[/spoiler]

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

yoshi97 wrote:Can someone help with this math question?

Of all of the U.S. album sales 1989 (Taylor Swift) accounted for 25% of sales, Frozen (Various Artists) accounted for 24.1% of sales, In the Lonely Hour (Sam Smith) accounted for 8.2% of sales. What is the probability that a randomly selected album was something other than these three albums?

Thanks

The given percents add to:

25% + 24.1% + 8.2% = 57.3% = 0.573

So the probability of NOT selecting any of those albums is 1 - 0.573 = 0.427.

Answer: 0.427