A basket contains 3 red and 1 white identical balls. A ball is drawn from the basket at random. Calculate the probability that it is either white or red.

A basket contains 3 red and 1 white identical balls. A ball is drawn from the basket at random. Calculate the probability that it is either white or red.

Answer Details

The probability of an event happening is the number of ways that event can happen, divided by the total number of possible outcomes. In this case, the total number of balls in the basket is 4, so there are 4 possible outcomes. The number of ways to choose a red ball is 3, since there are 3 red balls in the basket. The number of ways to choose a white ball is 1, since there is only 1 white ball in the basket. Therefore, the probability of choosing a red ball or a white ball is: \[P(\text{red or white}) = \frac{\text{number of red or white balls}}{\text{total number of balls}} = \frac{3+1}{4} = \frac{4}{4} = 1\] So the answer is option D: 1, meaning that it is certain that the ball drawn will be either red or white.