How do you determine the number of ways a computer can randomly generate an integer that is divisible by 4 from 1 through 12?

1 Answer
Jan 6, 2018

Probability: #1/4#
"Number of ways": #3#

Explanation:

The question is quite vague and unclear; there are two possible ways to interpret this question:

Assuming that you are asking for the number of possible integers that are divisible by 4 from 1 through 12, then there would be 3; 4, 8, and 12.

Assuming that you are asking for the probability that a computer will generate a number divisible by 4 if it randomly generates integers from 1 to 12 inclusive:

There are a total of 12 integers from 1 through 12. Three of these integers are divisible by 4: 4, 8, and 12.

Probability is measured as

#P = \frac{\text{number of ways to get the specified result}}{\text{total possible number of results}}#

Here, the specified result is "divisible by 4", and the number of ways to get a number divisible by 4 is 3. The total possible number of results is 12, since there are a total of 12 integers to choose from.

Hence, the probability of picking a number divisible by 4 is

#3/12=1/4#