Short Answer Word Problem

A

aburchett

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Of 31 college seniors at Southern Swampland University, 17 preferred pepperoni, 12 preferred supreme, and 2 preferred cheese. If we picked a college senior at Southern Swampland University at random, what is the probability that he or she would prefer pepporoni?

Ok, so I know that the
probability of seniors who prefer pepperoni is 17:31
probability of seniors who prefer supreme is 12:31
probability of seniors who prefer cheese is 2:31

Is the answer simply 17:31 or what do I need to do to figure this out?
 
Is 17:31 a probability?

I'm a little uncomfortable with this problem statement unless we know that SSU has only 31 students. It's a mighty small sample.
 
This is the part that I started to try to figure out:

Ok, so I know that the
probability of seniors who prefer pepperoni is 17:31 or 17/31
probability of seniors who prefer supreme is 12:31 or 12/31
probability of seniors who prefer cheese is 2:31 or 2/31

This part is the original question:
Of 31 college seniors at Southern Swampland University, 17 preferred pepperoni, 12 preferred supreme, and 2 preferred cheese. If we picked a college senior at Southern Swampland University at random, what is the probability that he or she would prefer pepporoni?

I was just showing what I started, but then got really confused.
 
I would feel better if it started, "Assuming this sample is indicative of the entire senior population of SSU, if we picked a college senior..."

After that, it;s just arithmetic. Write 17:31 however you have to write it so that it answer the question. 17/31? 0.548? 54.8%? Really, whatever it takes.
 
It just states to give solution exactly in reduced fraction form.

So then I would leave it as 17/31 because it doesn't reduce.
 
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