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Seventeen percent of people say they've seen a ghost or felt its presence. If 10 people are asked, what is the probability that at least two have seen a ghost or felt its presence?Round your answer to at least three decimals.

User Chris Murphy
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1 Answer

18 votes
18 votes

Answer: the probability that at least two have seen a ghost or felt its presence is 0.527

Step-by-step explanation:

In this scenario, it is either a person asked has seen seen a ghost or felt its presence or they have not. These outcomes are independent of each other. Thus, it's a binomial distribution. We would apply the formula for calculating binomial probability which is expressed as

P(x) = nCx * p^x * q^(n - x)

where

p = probability of success

q = 1 - p = probability of failure

n = sample size

x = number of successes

From the information given, we are concerned with the people that say they've seen a ghost or felt its presence. Thus,

p = 17% = 17/100 = 0.17

q = 1 - 0.17 = 0.83

n = 10

x = 2

We want to find P(x ≥ 2)

P(x ≥ 2) = 1 - [P(x = 0) + P(x = 1)

P(x = 0) = 10C0 * 0,17^0 * 0.83^(10 - 0) = 0.1552

P(x = 1) = 10C1 * 0,17^1 * 0.83^(10 - 1) = 0.3178

P(x ≥ 2) = 1 - (0.1552 + 0.3178) = 1 - 0.473

P(x ≥ 2) = 0.527

the probability that at least two have seen a ghost or felt its presence is 0.527

User Evis
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