sameeraj
A magician has five animals: 2 doves and 3 rabbits- If he pulls 2 animals out at random, what is the chance that he will get a matched pair.
The way I solved it:
Probability of matched pair= probability of 2 doves (2/5*1/4= 2/20)+ Probability of 2 rabbits (3/5*2/4)
= 2/20+ 6/20= 8/20.
But the official answer is: Number of ways/ total number of ways= 4/10.
Conceptually both seem appropriate but the answers are different: what am I missing?
Number of ways in which magician can get a pair of doves = 1 (there are only two and only one way to select both)
Number of ways in which magician can get a pair of rabbits = 3 (there are three and so three ways to select two at a time)
e.g. select two alpha between A, B and C. It can be done in three ways - AB, BC and CA
It can be done the other way i.e. BA, CB or AC so double that
So it should be 2(1+3)/20 = 2x4/20 =2/5
CORRECTION!