Probability and Combinatorics

mochaswirl

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Aug 18, 2009
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Hello, I have a math question about probability.

The question is: A committee of five people is selected from ten females and eight males. What is the probability that there are exactly three females on the committee?

I don't think I understand how to solve this problem properly. I've tried different methods but none of them are right. Here's what I've tried so far:

10 nCr 3 / 18!

10 nCr 3 / 18 nCr 5

but after trying all these things I realized I don't understand how to get started :( I hope somebody can help me! Thanks in advance!
 
mochaswirl said:
The question is: A committee of five people is selected from ten females and eight males. What is the probability that there are exactly three females on the committee?
\(\displaystyle \frac{\binom{10}{3}\binom{8}{2}}{\binom{18}{5}}\)

WHY?
 
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