Question

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the probability that a randomly selected citizen of the United States has hearing problems is 0.151. The probability that a randomly selected citizen of the United States has vision problems is 0.093. Can we compute the probability of randomly selecting a citizen of the United States who has a hearing problem or vision problem by adding these probabilities? Why or why not?

Answer 1

I think the answer is yes you can because they are both different things.

What I mean by that is that the United Stated as .151% of its people with hearing problems, and .093% with vision problems. So really adding them together just mixes it saying that .244% of people in the united states have either a vision or a hearing problem.

It doesn’t make it any more or any less people by adding them together. Therefore it’s not any more or any less probable to pick one or the other.

Hopes this helps.