Question

Past records indicate that 15 percent of the flights for a certain airline are delayed. Suppose flights are randomly selected one at a time from all flights. Assume each selection is independent of another. Which of the following is closest to the probability that it will take 5 selections to find one flight that is delayed?a. 0.0783

b. 0.0921
c. 0.4780
d. 0.5220
e. 0.5563

Answer 1

a. 0.0783

Explanation:

We have these following probabilities:

A 15% probability that a flight is delayed

An 85% probability that a flight is on time

Which of the following is closest to the probability that it will take 5 selections to find one flight that is delayed?

We want the first four flights to be on time. Each flight has an 85% probability of being on time.We want the fifth flight to be late.

Each flight has a 15% probability of being late.

So

0.85*0.85*0.85*0.85*0.15 = 0.0783

So the correct answer is:

a. 0.0783