Suppose a single card is drawn from a standard deck of playing cards. Find the probability of drawing a five or a red card?
There are 52 cards in a standard deck. There are four fives and 26 red cards (13 hearts and 13 diamonds) in the deck. However, we must be careful not to count the red five of hearts and the red five of diamonds twice. So, the total number of cards that are either fives or red is 4 + 26 - 2 = 28. Therefore, the probability of drawing a five or a red card is:
P(five or red) = 28/52 = 7/13
Answer: \boxed{\frac{7}{13}}.
To find the probability of drawing a five or a red card from a standard deck of playing cards, we need to determine the number of favorable outcomes and the total number of possible outcomes.
There are four suits in a standard deck of playing cards: hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades. Half of the cards in the deck are red (hearts and diamonds), and half are black (clubs and spades).
The number of fives in a deck is four (one for each suit), and there are 26 red cards (13 hearts and 13 diamonds).
To calculate the probability, we need to add the number of favorable outcomes (cards that are fives or red) and divide it by the total number of possible outcomes (the entire deck of 52 cards).
Number of favorable outcomes = 4 (number of fives) + 26 (number of red cards) - 2 (overlap of red fives)
= 28
Total number of possible outcomes = 52
Probability of drawing a five or a red card = Number of favorable outcomes / Total number of possible outcomes
= 28 / 52
= 7 / 13
Therefore, the probability of drawing a five or a red card from a standard deck of playing cards is 7/13.