Question

A box contains 6 red, 3 white, 2 green, and 1 black (total 12) identical balls. What is the least number of balls necessary to take out randomly (without looking) to be sure of getting: at least three the same color?

Answer 1

Answer:

We shall need to pick at least 4 balls to be sure that we are getting balls with the same color

Step-by-step explanation:

Here, we want to know the least number of balls to be taken out of the box to be sure that we have all the three colors represented.

We know there are 12 identical balls, with the least numbers of balls being 1 and 2. Hence, to be able to know we have all the colors of balls represented, we will need to have taken all the less represented ones i.e the 1 and 2 , and this means that the next number of ball which would be taken will confidently confirm that we have taken all the colors since we would have exhausted picking other balls at this point.

So we shall be needing at least 4 balls picked to ensure that we have all the colors represented