Question of-the
Of the 8 planets in our solar system, 4 are considered rocky. If a student randomly selects 1 of those 8 planets as a topic for a report, what is the probability that the selected planet will be rocky?
2
Of the 8 planets in our solar system, 4 are considered rocky. If a student randomly
Easy-difficulty · SAT Math · Probability & Conditional Probability — Simple probability. Read the question above, select your answer, and check the full explanation below to understand exactly why the correct choice works.
Answer explanation
Choice C is correct. If one of these planets is selected at random, the probability that the selected planet will be rocky is calculated by dividing the number of planets that are considered rocky by the total number of planets. It’s given that 4 of the 8 total planets are considered rocky. Therefore, the probability that the selected planet will be rocky is 
, which is equivalent to .
Choices A and B are incorrect. These represent the probability if 1 of the 8 planets was considered rocky (choice A) and if 2 of the 8 planets were considered rocky (choice B). Choice D is incorrect and may result from dividing the total number of planets by the number of planets that are considered rocky.
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