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30% of employees in a very large factory are smokers. What is the probability that there are exactly 2 smokers in a randomly chosen group of 5 workers in this factory?

a) 0.3087
b) 0.3080
c) 0.1852
d) 0.1232

User Regeint
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1 Answer

5 votes

Final answer:

The probability that exactly 2 out of 5 randomly chosen workers are smokers in a factory where 30% are smokers is found using the binomial probability formula. The calculation yields a probability of 0.3087, which is answer choice (a).

Step-by-step explanation:

The question asks about the probability that there are exactly 2 smokers in a randomly chosen group of 5 workers from a factory where 30% of employees are smokers. This is a problem that can be solved using the binomial probability formula:

P(X = k) = (n choose k) * p^k * (1-p)^(n-k)


where:

  • n is the number of trials (5 workers)
  • k is the number of successful outcomes (2 smokers)
  • p is the probability of success on an individual trial (0.30 for a smoker)
  • 1-p is the probability of failure on an individual trial (0.70 for a non-smoker)

The binomial coefficient (n choose k) is the number of ways to choose k successes from n trials, which can be calculated as n! / (k! * (n-k)!).

For n = 5 and k = 2:

  • 5 choose 2 is 10 (there are 10 ways to pick 2 smokers out of 5 workers)
  • p^k is 0.30^2
  • (1-p)^(n-k) is 0.70^3

Putting these values into the formula gives us:

P(X = 2) = 10 * (0.30)^2 * (0.70)^3 = 0.3087

Therefore, the probability is 0.3087, which corresponds to answer choice (a).

User Lummers
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