Question

In a sample bag of M&M's candy, there are 5 brown, 6 yellow, 4 blue, 3 green, and 2 orange.

What is the probability of getting 3 yellow M&M's if 3 are taken at a time?

Answer 1

There are 20 M&Ms in total. 6 of these are yellow. The chances of picking a yellow are 6/20; that leaves 19 sweets including 5 yellow, so the chances of another yellow are 5/19; the chances that the third sweet is also yellow is 4/18. The combined probability is 6/20*5/19*4/18=1/57=0.0175, 1.75%. It doesn't matter if the sweets are selected together or separately, the probability is the same. Neither does it matter what the other colours are, just as long as there are 20 sweets altogether and 6 are yellow.