Question

Researchers testing a new medication find that 24 % of users have side effects. To how many patients would a doctor expect to prescribe the medication before finding the first one who has side effects?

............... patients

(Round up to the nearest whole number.)

Answer 1

To find the number of patients a doctor would expect to prescribe the medication to before finding the first one who has side effects, use the concept of expected value. The doctor would expect to prescribe the medication to 5 patients before finding the first one with side effects.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the number of patients a doctor would expect to prescribe the medication to before finding the first one who has side effects, we need to use the concept of expected value. The expected value is calculated by multiplying the probability of an event by the number of times the event is expected to occur. In this case, since 24% of users have side effects, the probability of a patient having side effects is 0.24. Let's assume the number of patients prescribed the medication is n. The expected number of patients with side effects would be 0.24n. To find the value of n, we can set up the equation:

0.24n = 1

Solving for n,

n = 1 / 0.24

Rounding up to the nearest whole number, the doctor would expect to prescribe the medication to 5 patients before finding the first one who has side effects.