Those socks!

Probability Level 1

It was around 4 in the morning, and I'm all dressed up, ready for school, when the electricity was cut off. Too bad, I haven't put on my socks yet.

I have 2343 pairs of gray socks, 3212 pairs of pink socks and 6525 pairs of blue socks. Everything is mixed in my drawer (I'm a bit of irresponsible, sorry about that.). As there was no light, I was not able to identify the color of the socks. How many of the socks did I need to take to match one pair?


The answer is 4.

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Mj M by MJ M , 24, Philippines

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6 solutions

Noel Lo
May 22, 2015

Few would find themselves having to get ready for school at 4 in the morning haha.

12 Helpful 1 Interesting 3 Brilliant 3 Confused

Even fewer people have such a big drawer, haha.

A Former Brilliant Member - 5 years ago

nice but a little bit of nonsense//////// joke

kent john calago - 3 years, 7 months ago

Yeah... I was thinking this was a bit weird to be so worried about being ready at 4. Just laze around for the next few hours till the electricity is back on

Zoe Codrington - 2 years, 8 months ago

just a piece of cake baba

kent john calago - 2 years, 8 months ago

I’m ready at 4, but the part I don’t get is why so many socks?

Sharon Heer - 12 months ago
Siddhant Kishore
Aug 10, 2015

The answer is 4 as if in the worst case scenario, he gets all the 3 socks as different in color, he would find the 4th sock as of the color of at least one of the colors as only 3 colors are available

10 Helpful 2 Interesting 0 Brilliant 0 Confused
Mj M
Jun 20, 2014

Although there are many socks in the drawer, there are only three colors. Therefore, four socks are enough to match one pair.

6 Helpful 0 Interesting 0 Brilliant 0 Confused

you have way too many socks

Agnishom Chattopadhyay - 4 years ago
Zoe Codrington
Sep 22, 2018

There are 3 kinds/colours of socks. Take 3 socks out and they could all be different. But as all the colours are all out, one of each colour is out in that case( otherwise we already have a match) the next one must match something

2 Helpful 0 Interesting 0 Brilliant 0 Confused
Pranay Pratyush
Aug 5, 2017

If we see the worst case then we would end up getting three socks of three different colors but our fourth attempt would give us at least one pair of socks. So the ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION IS 4.......

1 Helpful 0 Interesting 0 Brilliant 0 Confused
Shlok Panch
May 31, 2021

There are 3 kinds/colours of socks. Take 3 socks out and they could all be different. But as all the colours are all out, one of each colour is out in that case the next sock will be of either colour and hence the pair is matched

0 Helpful 0 Interesting 0 Brilliant 0 Confused

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