Use the normal approximation to the binomial distribution to answer this question. Fifteen percent of all students at a large university are absent on Mondays. If a random sample of 120 names is called on a Monday, what is the probability that less than twenty students are absent?

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Answer:

60.26% probability that less than twenty students are absent

Step-by-step explanation:

Binomial probability distribution

Probability of exactly x sucesses on n repeated trials, with p probability.

Can be approximated to a normal distribution, using the expected value and the standard deviation.

The expected value of the binomial distribution is:

[tex]E(X) = np[/tex]

The standard deviation of the binomial distribution is:

[tex]\sqrt{V(X)} = \sqrt{np(1-p)}[/tex]

Normal probability distribution

Problems of normally distributed samples can be solved using the z-score formula.

In a set with mean [tex]\mu[/tex] and standard deviation [tex]\sigma[/tex], the zscore of a measure X is given by:

[tex]Z = \frac{X - \mu}{\sigma}[/tex]

The Z-score measures how many standard deviations the measure is from the mean. After finding the Z-score, we look at the z-score table and find the p-value associated with this z-score. This p-value is the probability that the value of the measure is smaller than X, that is, the percentile of X. Subtracting 1 by the pvalue, we get the probability that the value of the measure is greater than X.

When we are approximating a binomial distribution to a normal one, we have that [tex]\mu = E(X)[/tex], [tex]\sigma = \sqrt{V(X)}[/tex].

In this problem, we have that:

[tex]n = 120, p = 0.15[/tex].

So

[tex]\mu = E(X) = np = 120*0.15 = 18[/tex]

[tex]\sigma = \sqrt{V(X)} = \sqrt{np(1-p)} = \sqrt{120*0.15*0.85} = 3.91[/tex]

If a random sample of 120 names is called on a Monday, what is the probability that less than twenty students are absent?

This is the pvalue of Z when X = 20-1 = 19. So

[tex]Z = \frac{X - \mu}{\sigma}[/tex]

[tex]Z = \frac{19 - 18}{3.91}[/tex]

[tex]Z = 0.26[/tex]

[tex]Z = 0.26[/tex] has a pvalue of 0.6026.

60.26% probability that less than twenty students are absent