Six square pieces of wood are put into a cloth bag and mixed about. the six pieces are identical in size and shape, however, three pieces are red and three are yellow.

1 out of 2 chances or 1/2

Step-by-step explanation:This is the complete question below:

Six square pieces of wood are put into a cloth bag and mixed about. The six pieces are identical in size and shape, however, three pieces are red and three are yellow. Suppose someone reaches into the bag (without looking) and pulls out one piece. What are the chances that the piece is red?

Probability is the likelihood of an event happening and is usually a number between 0 and 1. It can be written as a ratio or fraction.

To find the probability of an event happening, the number of desired outcome is divided by the total outcome.

There are 6 identical square pieces of wood, 3 are red while 3 are yellow. To find the probability of picking a red piece of wood from the cloth bag, the number of red woods is divided by the total number of woods. This can also be written as the ratio of red woods to total woods. Hence,

Red wood: total woods = 3:6

Dividing to the lowest term,

3/6 divided by 3 to give 1/2

The chances of picking a red piece is 1/2 or 1:2 or 1 out of 2 chances.

This also goes for the yellow piece which is also 3 in number.

Another illustration: what are the chances of getting a 4 when a dice is tossed?

There is only one 4 on the face of a dice, a dice has 6 faces, so, the number of desired outcome over total outcome would be 1/6 or 1:6.