My son's drawer has 3 black socks and 2 white socks. He cannot understand that, when eyes closed and tries to get a pair, why in 1st attempt same color pair is never found, it is usually mismatched. what he does if pair is mismatched he throws back in the drawer !
He has asked me this few times.. I cannot answer him …( we are not color blind!)
thank you.
Rodney
[Math] Possibility of getting odd pair socks
probability
Best Answer
There are $$ \frac{5 \times 4}{1 \times 2} = 10$$ ways of choosing two socks from a drawer containing five socks. There are three ways of choosing a matching pair of black socks and one way of choosing a matching pair of white socks. Thus there are four ways of choosing a matching pair of socks. The probability of choosing a matching pair of socks is $$\frac{4}{10}.$$