1.

The Sock Drawer

A drawer contains red socks and black socks. When two socks are drawn at random, the
probability that both are red is 1/2. (a) How small can the number of socks in the drawer be?
(b) How small if the number of black socks is even?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
2 0.333 0.167 0.100 0.067 0.048 0.036 0.028 0.022 0.018 0.015 0.013 0.011
3 0.500 0.300 0.200 0.143 0.107 0.083 0.067 0.055 0.045 0.038 0.033 0.029
4 0.600 0.400 0.286 0.214 0.167 0.133 0.109 0.091 0.077 0.066 0.057 0.050
5 0.667 0.476 0.357 0.278 0.222 0.182 0.152 0.128 0.110 0.095 0.083 0.074
6 0.714 0.536 0.417 0.333 0.273 0.227 0.192 0.165 0.143 0.125 0.110 0.098
7 0.750 0.583 0.467 0.382 0.318 0.269 0.231 0.200 0.175 0.154 0.137 0.123
8 0.778 0.622 0.509 0.424 0.359 0.308 0.267 0.233 0.206 0.183 0.164 0.147
9 0.800 0.655 0.545 0.462 0.396 0.343 0.300 0.265 0.235 0.211 0.189 0.171
10 0.818 0.682 0.577 0.495 0.429 0.375 0.331 0.294 0.263 0.237 0.214 0.195
11 0.833 0.705 0.604 0.524 0.458 0.404 0.359 0.322 0.289 0.262 0.238 0.217
12 0.846 0.725 0.629 0.550 0.485 0.431 0.386 0.347 0.314 0.286 0.261 0.239
13 0.857 0.743 0.650 0.574 0.510 0.456 0.411 0.371 0.338 0.308 0.283 0.260
14 0.867 0.758 0.669 0.595 0.532 0.479 0.433 0.394 0.360 0.330 0.303 0.280
15 0.875 0.772 0.686 0.614 0.553 0.500 0.455 0.415 0.380 0.350 0.323 0.299
16 0.882 0.784 0.702 0.632 0.571 0.519 0.474 0.435 0.400 0.369 0.342 0.317
17 0.889 0.795 0.716 0.648 0.589 0.538 0.493 0.453 0.418 0.387 0.360 0.335
18 0.895 0.805 0.729 0.662 0.605 0.554 0.510 0.471 0.436 0.405 0.377 0.352
19 0.900 0.814 0.740 0.676 0.620 0.570 0.526 0.487 0.452 0.421 0.393 0.368
20 0.905 0.823 0.751 0.688 0.633 0.585 0.541 0.503 0.468 0.437 0.409 0.383
21 0.909 0.830 0.761 0.700 0.646 0.598 0.556 0.517 0.483 0.452 0.423 0.398
P ( red pair )=
(r2 )
( r +b
2 )
Change value in A9 and B8 to
discover other possible values
for red and black.
1. The Sock Drawer

A drawer contains red socks and black socks. When two socks are drawn at random, the
probability that both are red is 1/2. (a) How small can the number of socks in the drawer be?
(b) How small if the number of black socks is even?

1+2 b+ √ 1+8 b 2
r=
2

b r 0
1 3
2 5.372281
3 7.772002
4 10.17891
5 12.58872
6 15
7 17.41211
8 19.82475
9 22.23774
10 24.65097
11 27.06438
12 29.47793
13 31.89157
14 34.3053
15 36.7191
1. The Sock Drawer

A drawer contains red socks and black socks. When two socks are drawn at random, the
probability that both are the same color is 1/2. How many socks can be in the drawer?

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 0.333 0.400 0.467 0.524 0.571 0.611 0.644 0.673 0.697
3 0.400 0.400 0.429 0.464 0.500 0.533 0.564 0.591 0.615
4 0.467 0.429 0.429 0.444 0.467 0.491 0.515 0.538 0.560
5 0.524 0.464 0.444 0.444 0.455 0.470 0.487 0.505 0.524
6 0.571 0.500 0.467 0.455 0.455 0.462 0.473 0.486 0.500
7 0.611 0.533 0.491 0.470 0.462 0.462 0.467 0.475 0.485
8 0.644 0.564 0.515 0.487 0.473 0.467 0.467 0.471 0.477
9 0.673 0.591 0.538 0.505 0.486 0.475 0.471 0.471 0.474
10 0.697 0.615 0.560 0.524 0.500 0.485 0.477 0.474 0.474
11 0.718 0.637 0.581 0.542 0.515 0.497 0.485 0.479 0.476
12 0.736 0.657 0.600 0.559 0.529 0.509 0.495 0.486 0.481
13 0.752 0.675 0.618 0.575 0.544 0.521 0.505 0.494 0.486
14 0.767 0.691 0.634 0.591 0.558 0.533 0.515 0.502 0.493
15 0.779 0.706 0.649 0.605 0.571 0.545 0.526 0.511 0.500
16 0.791 0.719 0.663 0.619 0.584 0.557 0.536 0.520 0.508
 P( match)=
( r
2 ) +( )
b
2

( r+2b )
11 12 13 14 15 16
0.718 0.736 0.752 0.767 0.779 0.791
0.637 0.657 0.675 0.691 0.706 0.719
0.581 0.600 0.618 0.634 0.649 0.663
0.542 0.559 0.575 0.591 0.605 0.619
0.515 0.529 0.544 0.558 0.571 0.584
0.497 0.509 0.521 0.533 0.545 0.557
0.485 0.495 0.505 0.515 0.526 0.536
0.479 0.486 0.494 0.502 0.511 0.520
0.476 0.481 0.486 0.493 0.500 0.508
0.476 0.478 0.482 0.487 0.492 0.499
0.478 0.478 0.480 0.483 0.487 0.492
0.482 0.480 0.480 0.481 0.484 0.488
0.487 0.483 0.481 0.481 0.483 0.485
0.492 0.487 0.484 0.483 0.483 0.484
0.499 0.492 0.488 0.485 0.484 0.484