There are small pieces of paper in a jar with one number written on each piece. The numbers are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,12 what is the probability of choosing a number greater than 4?

Answer 1

Hi Emily!

So the probability of something occurring is how likely a desired outcome will happen compared to all possible outcomes. We can write that as:

probability = (number of successful outcomes) divided by (total number of outcomes)

Here, we can pick 1 of any 12 pieces of paper. Therefore we have 12 possible outcomes. There are 8 pieces of paper that have a number greater than 4 (which are 5 through 12). Using the definition we wrote earlier, we can find the probability of picking a number greater than 4:

probability = (number of successful outcomes) divided by (total number of outcomes)

p = 8 / 12

p = 2/3 or 0.667 or 66.7%

We would say that the probability of choosing a number greater than 4 is 66.7%.

Hope that helps!