simplify your answer

Question

suppose the probability of selling a car today is 0.36. Find the odds against selling a car today

Answer 1

1 - .36 = .64

Answer 2

Hi Dan,

The first thing we need to do is calculate the probability of not selling a car. Since we know the probability of selling a car is .36, the probability of NOT selling a car is 1 - .36 = .64.

Now here's where it gets tricky - we need to be careful about the difference between probability and odds. Probability is the number of ways an event can happen divided by the total number of events.

Odds, on the other hand, is the ratio of the probability that an event will happen to the probability that it will not happen.

Since we want to know the odds of NOT selling a car, we set up the odds like this: .64:.36. The easiest way to simplify this is probably to say that the odds against selling a car is about 1.78

 

Hope that helps