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A database system assigns 32 character id to each record where each character is either a number from 0 to 9 or a letter from a to f assume that each number or letter being selected equally likely find the probability that at least 20 characters in the ID are numbers round your answer to three decimal places

User ViVi
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2 Answers

5 votes

This is a binomial distribution problem with the following parameters:

  • Number of trials: n = 32
  • Probability of success: p = probability that a character is a number = 10/16 = 5/8
  • Probability of failure: q = 1 - p = probability that a character is a letter = 6/16 = 3/8

We want to find the probability that at least 20 characters are numbers. We can use the complement rule and find the probability that fewer than 20 characters are numbers, and subtract that from 1:

P(at least 20 numbers) = 1 - P(fewer than 20 numbers)

Using the binomial probability formula, we have:

P(fewer than 20 numbers) = Σ[k=0 to 19] C(n,k) * p^k * q^(n-k)

where C(n,k) is the binomial coefficient "n choose k". This can be calculated using a calculator or software that has a binomial probability function. For example, in Python, we can use the scipy.stats.binom.cdf() function:

from scipy.stats import binom

n = 32

p = 5/8

q = 3/8

prob_fewer_than_20 = binom.cdf(19, n, p)

This gives prob_fewer_than_20 = 0.04903110366420758.

Therefore,

P(at least 20 numbers) = 1 - 0.04903110366420758 = 0.9509688963357924

Rounding to three decimal places, the answer is 0.951.

User Zaeem Sattar
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8.9k points
4 votes
0.578

hope this helps
User Vijay Kansal
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8.2k points