Question

There are 24 gloves in a drawer: seven red pairs, four yellow pairs, and two green pairs. During a cold winter storm, the lights go out before you leave the house. You are now stuck getting ready in the dark. How many gloves must you choose from the drawer to ensure that you have at least one matching pair?

Answer 1

There are red gloves, yellow gloves are green gloves.

Total number of colors = 3

There are three different colors. The worst case scenario is when you take out gloves and all are of different colors. But when you take 1 glove more than the total number of colors, you will have already have a glove that matches the colors of the last glove you took out. So, you need to take 1 glove more than the total number of colors to be sure that you have at least one matching pair.

Ans: Number of gloves you must choose from the drawer to ensure that you have at least one matching pair = 3 + 1 = 4