Ask Me Help Desk

Ask Me Help Desk (https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/forum.php)
-   Math & Sciences (https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=402)
-   -   Probability in statistics (https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/showthread.php?t=211341)

  • Apr 30, 2008, 07:48 PM
    trclem40
    probability in statistics
    One medical textbook states that only 6% of th human population has blood type O-Negative. Assume that a simple random sample of 45 people are selected.

    A. Find the probability that 5 of the selected people have blood type O-Negative. Would this be considered unusual. Why or why not?

    B. Find the probability that at least 4 of the selected people have blood type O- Negative. Would this be considered unusual . Why or why not?
  • May 1, 2008, 02:17 PM
    ebaines
    For A: The probability that n people in a population of 45 have this blood type is . For n = 5: .

    For B: P(at least 4) = 1 - P(0) - P(1) - P(2) - P(3).

    Hope this helps.
  • May 2, 2008, 08:14 AM
    iamthetman
    To determine whether it's unusual, look at how many people have it vs. how many people you would expect to have it.

    For A: 5 people actually have that blood type
    You'd expect 45 x 6% of people to have it, meaning you'd expect 2.7 people to have it out of your group of 45 people.

    Hope this helps.
  • May 2, 2008, 08:52 AM
    ebaines
    The best way to determine whether 5 is an unusual number to have for this blood type out of a sample size of 45 people is to determine how many standard deviations 5 is from the mean. As IATM points out, the mean is 2.7. The formula for standard deviation of a binomial distribution like this is:



    where for this problem n = 45 and p = 0.06. So here the variance is 45(/06)(.94)= 2.54, and the standard deviation is . So having 5 people with this blood type is (5-2.7)/1.6 = 1.44 standard deviations from the mean. So now you need to decide whether a Z-score of 1.44 is "unusual" or not. Hope this helps.

  • All times are GMT -7. The time now is 08:14 PM.