A box contains 3 plain pencils and 1 pen. A second box contains 4 color pencils and 4 crayons. One item from each box is chosen
at random. What is the probability that a pen from the first box and a crayon from the second box are selected? Write your answer as a fraction in simplest form.
Well, the chances are 3 to 1 in the first question, because there are three pencils and only one pen. In the second box it is a 50-50 chance that you will pick a crayon, because there are equal amounts of colored pencils and crayons in the second box. The numbers that I gave you aren't the fractions though. See if you can go from here.
ALTERNATIVE ROUTE: You know that 0.125 is equal to 1/8 And 1/2^3 is also equal to 1/8 So since you need the reciprocal to match it the exponent is a negative
