Tan2017
There are 12 balls in an urn, out of which 4 balls are picked up at random. Is the probability of all the 4 balls being red greater than 1/33?
(1) If 2 balls are picked up, the probability of both being red is 5/33
(2) There are 7 blue balls
We are given that there are 12 balls in an urn, out of which 4 balls are picked up at random. We need to determine whether the probability of selecting 4 red balls is greater than 1/33.
Statement One Alone:
If 2 balls are picked up, the probability of both being red is 5/33
We can let r = the number of red balls and create the following equation:
(r/12) x (r - 1)/11 = 5/33
(r^2 - r)/132 = 5/33
33(r^2 - r) = 132 x 5
(r^2 - r) = 4 x 5
(r^2 - r) = 20
r^2 - r - 20 = 0
(r - 5)(r + 4) = 0
r = 5 or r = -4
Since r must be positive, we see that there are 5 red balls in the urn and thus there are 7 blue balls. Thus, we have enough information to answer the question.
Statement Two Alone:
There are 7 blue balls
Since there are 7 blue balls, there are at most 5 red balls. Even if all 5 remaining balls are red, the probability that the 4 chosen balls are red is:
(5/12) x (4/11) x (3/10) x (2/9) = 1/(11 x 9) = 1 / 99.
If there are fewer than 5 red balls in the urn, the probability that all 4 chosen balls are red is even smaller. Thus, the probability that all 4 chosen balls are red is definitely less than 1/33.
Once again, we have enough information to answer the question.
Answer: D