Each letter of the alphabet is written on a separate piece of paper and placed in a box. Find the probability of drawing a vowel, {a, e, i, o, u}, or a letter in the word "sum"

5/26 probability of drawing a vowel

3/26 probability of drawing s, u or m.

Either-or probabilities are found by adding the individual probabilities.

This is not the right answer as you would not count the u in "sum" twice. Your answer is 7/26

To find the probability of drawing a vowel or a letter in the word "sum," we need to determine the total number of favorable outcomes and the total number of possible outcomes.

Step 1: Determine the total number of favorable outcomes.
In this case, the favorable outcomes are the vowels {a, e, i, o, u} and the letters in the word "sum."

For vowels: Since there are 5 vowels, the total number of favorable outcomes for vowels is 5.

For the word "sum": We have the letters {s, u, m}, which means we have 3 favorable outcomes for the word "sum."

So the total number of favorable outcomes is 5 + 3 = 8.

Step 2: Determine the total number of possible outcomes.
Since each letter of the alphabet is written on a separate piece of paper, the total number of possible outcomes is 26 (the total number of letters in the alphabet).

Step 3: Calculate the probability.
The probability is calculated by dividing the total number of favorable outcomes by the total number of possible outcomes.

Probability = (Total number of favorable outcomes) / (Total number of possible outcomes)

Substituting the values:
Probability = 8 / 26

Simplifying further:
Probability = 4 / 13

Therefore, the probability of drawing a vowel or a letter in the word "sum" from the box is 4/13.