A jar contains 14 nickels, 10 dimes, 6 quarters, and 22 pennies. A coin is chosen at random from the jar. What is the probability that the coin chosen is a dime?

Question

irishboy123 · Answer

As a very serious footnote, it depends totally on the conditions.  Statistics in small experiments is more like dirty journalism, weather forecasting, economics or advertising.  Meaningless!!

Assuming that everything is above board, and that the outcome is purely random:
-  there are 52 "coins" in the mix.
- and 10 of them are "dimes" {whatever those terms may mean!}.

the simple probability that one would end up with a "dime" is therefore 10/52.  that's an irrational number along the lines of 0.19231.

however, were it Ray Charles posthumously holding the jar, and were it Richard Nixon (posthumously??) choosing the "pennies", the outcomes could be very different.