Math word problem help!!!!?

Question

My son has a word problem to solve please help.

In the dryer there are 18 red socks, 24 white socks, 8 blue socks and 10 black socks. Fred wants to have two matching socks to wear. he reaches into the dryer and without looking pulls out one sock at a time. what is the minimum number of socks he needs to pull out to be sure he will have a matching pair? Why?

Answer 1

5.  If he pulls out the first 4 socks, and they are different colors, then the 5th will have to match one of them!

Answer 2

I think it might be 8. I'm not positive. The reason i think this is because there is 5 different colors of socks. If he picks out 8, there is a chance of him picking out 5 exact pairs. That way he most likely will have a sure chance.

Answer 3

The answer is 5. This is because there are four colors of socks, meaning the first for will be of one color and the fifth will be of one of the colors already picked out. Hope this helps!

Answer 4

5. There are 4 different colors, so even assuming he pulled out a different color the first 4 times, the 5th. time he would have to pull out a match to one of the 4.