Ashley takes her 3-year-old brother Alex into an antique shop. There are 5 statues, 4 picture frames, and 3 vases on a shelf. Alex accidentally knocks 2 items off the shelf and breaks them.
Choose the probability best described by:
5/44

Question

Ashley takes her 3-year-old brother Alex into an antique shop. There are 5 statues, 4 picture frames, and 3 vases on a shelf. Alex accidentally knocks 2 items off the shelf and breaks them. 
Choose the probability best described by:
5/44

anonymous · Answer

There are 10 items TOTAL, right? 4 statues, 3 picture frames, and 3 vases. Well there are 3 vases, so the first probability is 3/10. If he broke one vase, then there are 9 items left, and 2 vases, so the probability becomes 2/9, now to find out the final, multiply, (3/10)and (2/9) which equals: 

1/15. 

If your teacher says this is wrong, he may solve it another way which the answer will come out to 9/100, but that is extremely unlikely. 

Your answer should be 1/15.