Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 2.6 Junior Find the answer

A box contains 2 red marbles, 2 green marbles, and 2 yellow marbles. Carol takes 2 marbles from the box at random; then Claudia takes 2 of the remaining marbles at random; and then Cheryl takes the last 2 marbles. What is the probability that Cheryl gets 2 marbles of the same color?

Pick one

Solution

If Cheryl gets two marbles of the same color, then Claudia and Carol must take all four marbles of the two other colors. The probability of this happening, given that Cheryl has two marbles of a certain color is 46352413=115\frac{4}{6} \cdot \frac{3}{5} \cdot \frac{2}{4} \cdot \frac{1}{3} = \frac{1}{15}. Since there are three different colors, our final probability is 3115= (C)153 \cdot \frac{1}{15} = \textbf{ (C)} \frac{1}{5}.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.