What is the probability of drawing a heart or a king from a standard deck of cards?

Official Answer

"When approaching a problem of probability, it's important first to define the universe of possible outcomes clearly. In this case, we're dealing with a standard deck of cards, which contains 52 cards in total. The deck is divided into four suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades, with each suit having 13 cards. Among these, there are four kings, each belonging to one of the suits. Now, the question asks for the probability of drawing a card that is either a heart or a king.

To tackle this, let's consider the number of favorable outcomes. There are 13 hearts in the deck. Additionally, there are three kings not of hearts (since one of the kings is already counted within the 13 hearts). This brings the total number of favorable outcomes to 13 (hearts) + 3 (non-heart kings) = 16.

The probability of an event is calculated as the number of favorable outcomes divided by the total number of outcomes. With 16 favorable outcomes (hearts or a king) out of a total of 52 possible outcomes (any card from the deck), the probability is calculated as 16 divided by 52.

Simplifying 16/52 gives us 4/13. Therefore, the probability of drawing a heart or a king from a standard deck of cards is 4/13."

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