SOLUTION: 1. Suppose a survey of 890 families with 5 children was done a) What is the probability of observing children to be all boys or all girls

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Question 333310: 1. Suppose a survey of 890 families with 5 children was done
a) What is the probability of observing children to be all boys or all girls

Answer by solver91311(24713) About Me  (Show Source):
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It depends. What are your assumptions regarding the probability of conception of a boy vs. a girl? If you presume 50/50, which is totally false, then you would proceed thus:

The probability of successes in trials where is the probability of success on any given trial is given by:



Where is the number of combinations of things taken at a time and is calculated by

To calculate the probability of all boys in 5, you would use:



Fortunately, this reduces to a very simple calculation because . And .

Since the probability is 1/2, the probability of 5 girls is the same, so the probability of either is just two times either.

If you want to assume the empirical probability of a boy being 105/205 or approximately 0.512, then you need to do:



Once you decide on which probability to use, multiply by 890 to find the expected number.


John

My calculator said it, I believe it, that settles it