Answer:
0.2843 = 28.43% probability that no less than 92 out of 159 students will pass their college placement exams.
Step-by-step explanation:
I am going to use the binomial approximation to the normal to solve this question.
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:
![E(X) = np](https://tex.z-dn.net/?f=E%28X%29%20%3D%20np)
The standard deviation of the binomial distribution is:
![\sqrt{V(X)} = \sqrt{np(1-p)}](https://tex.z-dn.net/?f=%5Csqrt%7BV%28X%29%7D%20%3D%20%5Csqrt%7Bnp%281-p%29%7D)
Normal probability distribution
Problems of normally distributed samples can be solved using the z-score formula.
In a set with mean
and standard deviation
, the zscore of a measure X is given by:
![Z = \frac{X - \mu}{\sigma}](https://tex.z-dn.net/?f=Z%20%3D%20%5Cfrac%7BX%20-%20%5Cmu%7D%7B%5Csigma%7D)
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
,
.
In this problem, we have that:
. So
![\mu = E(X) = 159*0.55 = 87.45](https://tex.z-dn.net/?f=%5Cmu%20%3D%20E%28X%29%20%3D%20159%2A0.55%20%3D%2087.45)
![\sigma = \sqrt{V(X)} = \sqrt{np(1-p)} = \sqrt{159*0.55*0.45} = 6.27](https://tex.z-dn.net/?f=%5Csigma%20%3D%20%5Csqrt%7BV%28X%29%7D%20%3D%20%5Csqrt%7Bnp%281-p%29%7D%20%3D%20%5Csqrt%7B159%2A0.55%2A0.45%7D%20%3D%206.27)
Probability that no less than 92 out of 159 students will pass their college placement exams.
No less than 92 is more than 91, which is 1 subtracted by the pvalue of Z when X = 91. So
![Z = \frac{X - \mu}{\sigma}](https://tex.z-dn.net/?f=Z%20%3D%20%5Cfrac%7BX%20-%20%5Cmu%7D%7B%5Csigma%7D)
![Z = \frac{91 - 87.45}{6.27}](https://tex.z-dn.net/?f=Z%20%3D%20%5Cfrac%7B91%20-%2087.45%7D%7B6.27%7D)
![Z = 0.57](https://tex.z-dn.net/?f=Z%20%3D%200.57)
has a pvalue of 0.7157
1 - 0.7157 = 0.2843
0.2843 = 28.43% probability that no less than 92 out of 159 students will pass their college placement exams.