Question

A box contains 5 red, 8 blue and 3 green pens. Rutuja wants to pick a pen at random. What is the probability that the pen is blue?

Answer 1

Total number of pens = 5 + 8 + 3
= 16
Number of blue pens = 8
Therefore, required probability = $\frac{\mathrm{Number}\mathrm{of}\mathrm{blue}\mathrm{pens}}{\mathrm{Total}\mathrm{number}\mathrm{of}\mathrm{pens}}$
$$\begin{gathered} =\frac{8}{16} \\ =\frac{1}{2} \end{gathered}$$
Hence, the probability that the pen is blue is $\frac{1}{2}$.