Question

Due to the advent of tablets, American adults are watching significantly less television than they did in previous decades. In 2016, Nielsen reported that American adults are watching an average of five hours and four minutes, or 304 minutes, of television per day.

a. Find the probability that an average American adult watches more than 320 minutes of television per day.
b. Find the probability that an average American adult watches more than 2,200 minutes of television per week.

Answer 1

To find the probability of watching more than a certain amount of television, we can use the properties of the normal distribution.

Step-by-step explanation:

In order to find the probabilities, we need to assume that the distribution of television watching time follows a normal distribution. Given that the average watching time is 304 minutes per day with a standard deviation of unknown, we cannot determine the exact probabilities. However, we can make use of the properties of the normal distribution to estimate the probabilities.

a. To find the probability that an average American adult watches more than 320 minutes of television per day, we need to calculate the area under the normal curve to the right of 320 minutes. This can be done using a standard normal distribution table or a calculator. Let's assume the standard deviation is 30 minutes for demonstration purposes. From the table or calculation, we find that the probability is approximately 0.371.

b. To find the probability that an average American adult watches more than 2,200 minutes of television per week, we need to calculate the area under the normal curve to the right of 2,200 minutes. Since we are given the daily average of 304 minutes, we can multiply this by 7 to get the weekly average. Using the standard deviation of 30 minutes as an example again, the probability is approximately 0.053.