[Math] If $4$ people are chosen out of $6$ married couples, what is the chance that exactly one married couple is among the $4$ people

combinationsprobability

$6$ married couples are standing in a room. If $4$ people are chosen at random, what is the chance that exactly one married couple is among the $4$ people?


Total number of ways of selecting $4$ people out of $12$ people is $\binom{12}{4}=\frac{12!}{8!4!}=33\times 15$

I am having difficulty in counting the favourable cases.

Best Answer

Since there seems to be some confusion among the other answers, I'll expand my comment into an answer.

You can specify each such group of four people by choosing which three of the six couples are to be represented, then which one of the three couples is to appear in its entirety, then which one of the two people from the second couple is included, and finally which one of the two people from the third couple is included.

This makes for $${6\choose 3}\cdot{3\choose 1}\cdot{2\choose 1}\cdot{2\choose 1}=20\cdot3\cdot2\cdot2$$ favorable outcomes. Dividing by the ${12\choose4}=33\cdot15$ total outcomes gives $16/33$.