Final answer:
To simulate how many cereal boxes you need to buy to collect all three trading cards, you would use a random number generator to represent the probability of getting each card and track the purchase until you have at least one of each card.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question is about conducting a simulation to figure out how many boxes of cereal you would need to buy to collect all three trading cards: Tiger Woods, David Beckham, and Michael Phelps. Since 20% of the boxes contain a Tiger Woods card, 30% contain a David Beckham card, and the remaining 50% contain a Michael Phelps card, a simulation would involve simulating the purchase of cereal boxes and tracking which cards are obtained until you get at least one of each.
To begin a simulation, you might use a random number generator to simulate the purchase of cereal boxes. Suppose you label the Tiger Woods cards as the numbers 1-20 (since 20% chance), David Beckham cards as 21-50 (an additional 30% chance), and Michael Phelps cards as 51-100 (the remaining 50% chance). You then generate random numbers within this range and keep track of which cards you're getting. You repeat this process until you've obtained at least one of each type of card.
It's essential to understand that the number of boxes you must buy could vary depending on the outcome of your simulation, as it is contingent on the randomness of the process. There is no set number of boxes since it is a probabilistic situation.