At a high school, 40% of the students take Spanish. Of the... | SAT Probability and conditional probability Question, Answer Explained

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Math · Problem-Solving and Data AnalysisMedium

At a high school, $40\%$ of the students take Spanish. Of the students who take Spanish, $25\%$ also take French. If a student at the school is selected at random, what is the probability that the student takes both Spanish and French?

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Answer: 1/10

The students who take both languages are $25\%$ of the $40\%$ who take Spanish. So the probability is $0.25 \times 0.40 = 0.10$ , or $\frac{1}{10}$ .

Answering $0.25$ ignores that the $25\%$ applies only to Spanish students, who are $40\%$ of the school.

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