There are 4 aces and 4 kings in a standard deck of playing cards. You pick one card at random. What is the probability of selecting an ace or a king? Enter your answer as a simplified fraction.
Selecting an ace or a king are mutually exclusive events, thus, they cannot occur at the same time. Therefore, P(Ace or King) = P(Ace) + P(King) = 4/52 + 4/52 = 8/52. This means that the probability of selecting an ace or a king is 8/52.
To determine the probability of selecting an ace or a king, we first need to calculate the total number of outcomes and the number of favorable outcomes.
In a standard deck of playing cards, there are 52 cards in total. There are 4 aces and 4 kings, so there are a total of 4 + 4 = 8 favorable outcomes.
Since there are 52 cards in total, the probability of selecting an ace or a king can be calculated as:
Probability = (Number of Favorable Outcomes) / (Number of Total Outcomes)
= 8 / 52
To simplify the fraction, we can divide both the numerator and denominator by their greatest common divisor, which is 4.
Probability = (8 ÷ 4) / (52 ÷ 4)
= 2 / 13
Therefore, the probability of selecting an ace or a king from a standard deck of playing cards is 2/13.