A box contains 5 plain pencils and 7 pens. A second box contains 5 color pencils and 5 crayons. One item from each box is chosen at random. What is the probability that a pen from the first box and a crayon from the second box are selected? Write your answer as a fraction in simplest form.

Question

A box contains  5  plain pencils and  7  pens. A second box contains  5  color pencils and  5  crayons. One item from each box is chosen at random. What is the probability that a pen from the first box and a crayon from the second box are selected?  Write your answer as a fraction in simplest form.

anonymous · Answer

If you add all the writing/ drawing utensils together from the first box, you come up with 12. So your answer is 7/12 for the first box. (7 pens out of 12 drawing utensils). From the second box, there are 5 of each drawing utensil, and two types of drawing utensil. Therefore, the probability of drawing out a crayon from the second box is 1/2.