Question

A red die and green die are rolled. There are three six possibilities. What is the probability that the sum of the dice will equal 8?

Answer 1

The probability is 5/36, or a ratio of 5 to 36 that the sum of two dice rolls will equal 8.

You are given that there are 36 possible combinations. This can be calculated by multiplying the number of sides:

$6\text{ }\times6=36$

Now, we need to find the possibilities of earning a sum of 8 when rolling the dice. These are:

$\begin{gathered} 2+6=8 \\ 3+5=8 \\ 4+4=8 \\ 5+3=8 \\ 6+2=8 \end{gathered}$

Therefore, we see there are 5 ways to earn a sum of 8 out of 36 possible combinations. We will set up a ratio or fraction to represent it.

$P(x)=\frac{5}{36}$

The probability that the sum will equal 8 is equivalent to a ratio of 5 to 36.