There are 11 purple buttons and 5 red buttons in a bag. One button is selected at random. What is the probability of NOT selecting a purple button?
- 11 purple buttons
- 5 red buttons
Choose the best answer.
Note
For a “not” event, count the outcomes outside the named event. This is the complement of the event.
- The complement of selecting purple is selecting any other color.
- There are 5 non-purple buttons out of 16 total buttons.
- So the probability is 5/16 = 5/16.
- A complement probability can also be found by doing 1 minus the probability of the event.
The correct answer is 5/16. This matches the calculation or definition, so students should focus on the reasoning rather than only memorizing the final value.