View Full Version : Need Help-Probability Marbles


Puffkin123
02-19-2008, 03:47 AM
Would appreciate help with this probability problem.
A bag of marbles contains 6 red marbles, 5 green marbles, and 4 yellow marbles. Three marbles are drawn randomly without replacement.

What is the probability that only one of the three marbles drawn is green?

Cant seem to come up with the solution to this problem.. I don't need the answer as much as I need to know how to solve this problem.. like a formula that is used.. THANKS

JohnM
02-19-2008, 07:52 AM
If you consider the three draws in succession,, it looks like:

P(green) * P(not green) * P(not green)

and this can happen three different "ways" - G/NG/NG, NG/G/NG, NG/NG/G

Each "way" is a product, and then you add up the probability of each "way"
= [(5/15)*(10/14)*(9/13)] + [(10/15)*(5/14)*(9/13)] + [(10/15)*(9/14)*(5/13)]