Suppose the inside bottom of a box is painted with three colors: 1/3 of the bottom area is red, 1/6 is blue, and 1/2 is white. You toss a tiny pebble into the box without aiming.

Question

Suppose the inside bottom of a box is painted with three colors: 1/3 of the bottom area is red, 1/6 is blue, and 1/2 is white. You toss a tiny pebble into the box without aiming.

What is the probability that the pebble does not land on the color white? (Round your answer to the nearest whole number.)

 %

Answer 1

The best way to answer this is to think of all fractions in terms of sixths. So 1/2= 3/6. Because 3/6 is white, that means that 3/6 of the box is not white. In other words, 1/2 of the box is not white. So there is a 50% chance the pebble lands on not white.