Suppose a sorority sells 500 raffle tickets to raise money for a local charity. You purchase 17 of the tickets. If the winning ticket is chosen at random, what is the probability that one of your tickets is chosen as the winning ticket?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The probability of any one ticket winning is 1/500. Since you have 17 tickets, the probability that one of your tickets is chosen is:

P(one of your tickets is chosen) = P(first ticket is yours OR second ticket is yours OR ... OR seventeenth ticket is yours)

Because these events are mutually exclusive (i.e. if one of your tickets is chosen, the others cannot be chosen as well), we can add their probabilities:

P(one of your tickets is chosen) = P(first ticket is yours) + P(second ticket is yours) + ... + P(seventeenth ticket is yours)

P(one of your tickets is chosen) = (1/500) + (1/500) + ... + (1/500) (seventeen times)

P(one of your tickets is chosen) = 17/500

P(one of your tickets is chosen) = 0.034

Therefore, the answer is C: 0.034.

Suppose a Sorority Sells 500 Raffle Tickets to Raise Money