2007 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 21

Problem

Two cards are dealt from a deck of four red cards labeled $A$ , $B$ , $C$ , $D$ and four green cards labeled $A$ , $B$ , $C$ , $D$ . A winning pair is two of the same color or two of the same letter. What is the probability of drawing a winning pair? $\textbf{(A)}\ \frac{2}{7}\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ \frac{3}{8}\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ \frac{1}{2}\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ \frac{4}{7}\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ \frac{5}{8}$

Solution

There are 4 ways of choosing a winning pair of the same number, and $2 \left( \dbinom{4}{2} \right) = 12$ ways to choose a pair of the same color.

There's a total of $\dbinom{8}{2} = 28$ ways to choose a pair, so the probability is $\dfrac{4+12}{28} = \boxed{\textbf{(D)}\ \frac{4}{7}}$ .

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2007 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 21

Problem

Solution