Question

A magazine printed photos of three celebrities along with three photos of the celebrities as babies. The baby pictures did not identify the celebrities. readers were asked to match each celebrity with the correct baby pictures. What is the probability that a reader guessing at random will match all three correctly?

Answer 1

There are 3 options for the celebrities and 3 options for the babies. There is a 1 in 3 chance that a reader guessing at random will guess correctly. You compute the probability by dividing 100 by 3. 100 divided by 3 is 33.33%. Thus, there is a 1 in 3 chance or 33.33% that a reader guessing at random will answer correctly.

Answer 2

The probability of matching the first one correctly is  1/3 .
Then there are only two baby-pix left, so ...
The probability of matching the second one correctly is  1/2 .
Then there's only one baby-pic left, so ...
The probability of matching the third one correctly is  1 .

So the probability of matching all three correctly is

                (1/3) x (1/2) x (1)  =  1/6  =  (16 and 2/3) percent .