Question

Russell surveyed 16 students at his school and found that 4 of them planned to take orchestra as their next elective. If Russell surveys 12 more students, how many of them are probably planning on taking orchestra as an elective, based on past data?

Answer 1

3 students are probably planning on taking orchestra as their next elective.

Explanation:

Russell's results of the 16 surveyed students tells us that (4/16), or 25%, of the students planned on taking orchestra as their next elective. If we assume this sampling is valid for other students (i.e., the sampled students were chosen at random and are believed to be representative of the rest of the students), we may use the same percentage for the next 12 students:

(12 students)*(25%) = 3 students are probably planning on taking orchestra as an elective.