sandy wrote:
Explanation
If you pare down the problem, then it is much simpler than it first appears. There will be 1 house on Surf Street at which a turtle will lay its eggs; this is “the number of outcomes you want.”
There are a total of 5 houses, which is the “total number of possible outcomes.” Therefore, if John spends the summer on Surf Street, the probability of John staying in the house where the sea turtle will lay its eggs is choice B, \(\frac{1}{5}\), and the information about the landside houses versus seaside houses actually turns out to be unnecessary.
Similarly, if John stays on Breaker Way, there will be 1 house that a turtle will lay its eggs at out of a total of 3 possible houses that John could live in. Therefore, if he lives on Breaker Way, there is a \(\frac{1}{3}\)chance that the turtle lays its eggs outsides John’s house, and this makes choice D correct.
The sea turtle will randomly lay eggs in front of any beach house in surf street. So, don't we multiply the probability of John lives in Surf Street (1/5) and the probability of sea turtle laying eggs in front beach house in Surf Street (1/4), because of the keyword randomly.