Imagine that you have five blue socks and five brown socks in a drawer that are not paired up. How many socks must you take out from the drawer(without looking to be sure of getting a pair of the same color?
To determine how many socks you must take out of the drawer without looking to be sure of getting a pair of the same color, you need to consider the worst-case scenario.
In this case, you want to minimize the probability of getting a matching pair. Since there are only two colors (blue and brown), the worst-case scenario would be if you initially select one sock of each color.
Therefore, to be certain of getting a pair of the same color, you would need to take out a minimum of three socks. The first sock selected can be either blue or brown. The second sock selected will be of the opposite color as the first sock, and the third sock selected will guarantee a matching pair.
there are only 2 colors.
3 socks must have two of the same color...