The City Transit Authority plans to hire 16 new bus drivers. From a group of 200 qualified applicants, of which 160 are men and 40 are women, 16 names are to be selected by lot. Suppose that Mary and John Lewis are among the 200 qualified applicants. What is the probability that Mary's name will be selected? That both Mary's and John's names will be selected?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The probability of selecting Mary (or any specific individual) from 200 applicants for one of the 16 positions is 16/200 = 0.08. The probability of selecting both Mary and John specifically is the number of ways to choose 14 others from the remaining 198 applicants divided by the number of ways to choose 16 from all 200, which is (198 choose 14)/(200 choose 16) = 0.006.

The City Transit Authority Plans to Hire 16 New Bus