<p>A drawer contains red socks, black socks, and white socks. What is the least number of socks that must be taken out of the drawer to be sure of having 4 pairs of matching socks.</p>
<p>:/ Help? I know I probably seem borderline hopeless.</p>
<p>22 if my reasoning is correct. You need 8 socks of the same color to make four pairs of that color. Worst case scenario, you pull out 7 socks of each color, making 21 in all. The next one you pull out will inevitably give you a set of eight regardless of its color, since each color is just one sock away from having four pairs. 21 + 1 = 22.</p>
<p>The wording is unclear do the four pairs all need to be the same color?</p>
<p>If not then the answer is 10</p>
<p>Worse Case scenario with nine socks:</p>
<p>RRRBBBWWW</p>
<p>3 pairs and 1 unmatched for each color</p>
<p>Next draw would have to complete one of the pairs</p>
<p>9 + 1 = 10</p>
<p>^ Good point; depends upon the intent of the question. After reading your explanation, I would go with your answer because it doesn’t explicitly say that they all need to be the same color.</p>