Find the least number of gumballs a person must buy to be sure of getting four gumballs of the same color.
2007-04-24 16:19:31 · 3 answers · asked by the almighty 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Botany
If you bought the gumballs without looking at them you would have to buy 10 to be sure that you had 4 of the same color. Chances are pretty good you would you would get four alike a lot sooner if you checked each time. The least number if you were very lucky would be 4.
2007-04-24 18:04:11 · answer #1 · answered by john h 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It would be most likely that anyone would get 4 of the red ones since there are more red ones than any other color. There are 15 gumballs that are not red. So if you had the worst luck imagineable, you would buy all the not red ones first (15) and then the next four would have to be red (+4) --- so the smallest number a person must buy to be sure of getting 4 gumballs of the same color is 15+4 = 19. That's a lot.
2007-04-25 00:22:35 · answer #2 · answered by ecolink 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
to ensure 4 of the same, you'd have to buy 4 red+3white+3blue = 10 gumballs
the colours can be in any sequence. dont matter.
2007-04-24 23:31:08 · answer #3 · answered by lsl4x 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋