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jmc

counting and probability senior

Problem

Michael has never taken a foreign language class, but is doing a story on them for the school newspaper. The school offers French and Spanish. Michael has a list of all 25 kids in the school enrolled in at least one foreign language class. He also knows that 18 kids are in the French class and 21 kids are in the Spanish class. If Michael chooses two kids at random off his list and interviews them, what is the probability that he will be able to write something about both the French and Spanish classes after he is finished with the interviews? Express your answer as a fraction in simplest form.
Solution
There are a total of ways Michael could choose the 2 kids from his list. The only way Michael will not have enough from his interviews to write about both classes will be if he interviews two kids enrolled only in French or interviews two kids enrolled only in Spanish. In order to figure out the number of kids that satisfy this criteria, first note that kids are enrolled in both classes. Therefore, kids are only enrolled in French and kids are only enrolled in Spanish. If we drew this as a Venn diagram, it would look like: Michael could choose two students enrolled only in the French class in ways. He could choose two students enrolled only in the Spanish class in ways. So, the probability that he will be able to write about both classes is: Therefore, the probability Michael can write about both classes is:
Final answer
\frac{91}{100}