Expert: Richard J. Raridon - 2/25/2008

Question
QUESTION: A bag of M&M candy has 5 brown, 6 yellow, 4 blue, 3 green, and 2 orange colors. What is the probality of getting 3 yellow M&M's is 3 are taken at a time? show all your work. I have never been able to get probabilities. Please help.

ANSWER: (6/20)(5/19)(4/18) = 1/57

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QUESTION: can you please explain the formula or worked the problen obtaining the (6/20)(5/19) ect. I need to be able to do this myself and I just don't understand how the formula works. Thank you. Dianne

Answer
You start with 20 M&M's and there are 6 yellow ones so the chances of pulling out 1 yellow one is 6/20.  Now you have 19 left, 5 of which are yellow.  So the chances of getting a second yellow one are
5/19 and finally 4/18.  Multiply them together to get the probablity of getting 3 yellow ones.