Question

a jar contains 6 red jelly beans, 6 green beans, and 6 blue jelly beans if we choose a jelly bean, then another jelly bean without putting the first one back in the jar, what is the probability that the first jelly bean will be green and the second will be green as well

Answer 1

Answer: 5/51

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Explanation:

We have 6 green out of 6+6+6 = 18 total

The probability of getting green is 6/18 = 1/3.

After selecting that green jelly bean and not putting it back, we have 6-1 = 5 green out of 18-1 = 17 total.

The probability of selecting another green is 5/17.

Multiply the two fractions 1/3 and 5/17

(1/3)*(5/17) = (1*5)/(3*17) = 5/51

The probability of selecting two greens in a row is 5/51 where we do not put the first selection back. We also do not replace the green jelly bean with some other identical copy.

Note: 5/51 = 0.098039 approximately