Answer:
Choice C: approximately 121 green beans will be 13 centimeters or shorter.
Step-by-step explanation:
What's the probability that a green bean from this sale is shorter than 13 centimeters?
Let the length of a green bean be
centimeters.
follows a normal distribution with
- mean
and - standard deviation
.
In other words,
,
and the probability in question is
.
Z-score table approach:
Find the z-score of this measurement:
. Closest to 0.86.
Look up the z-score in a table. Keep in mind that entries on a typical z-score table gives the probability of the left tail, which is the chance that
will be less than or equal to the z-score in question. (In case the question is asking for the probability that
is greater than the z-score, subtract the value from table from 1.)
.
"Technology" Approach
Depending on the manufacturer, the steps generally include:
- Locate the cumulative probability function (cdf) for normal distributions.
- Enter the lower and upper bound. The lower bound shall be a very negative number such as
. For the upper bound, enter ![13](https://tex.z-dn.net/?f=13)
- Enter the mean and standard deviation (or variance if required).
- Evaluate.
For example, on a Texas Instruments TI-84, evaluating
gives
.
As a result,
.
Number of green beans that are shorter than 13 centimeters:
Assume that the length of green beans for sale are independent of each other. The probability that each green bean is shorter than 13 centimeters is constant. As a result, the number of green beans out of 150 that are shorter than 13 centimeters follow a binomial distribution.
- Number of trials
: 150. - Probability of success
: 0.804317.
Let
be the number of green beans out of this 150 that are shorter than 13 centimeters.
.
The expected value of a binomial random variable is the product of the number of trials and the probability of success on each trial. In other words,
![E(Y) = n\cdot p = 150 \times 0.804317 = 120.648\approx 121](https://tex.z-dn.net/?f=E%28Y%29%20%3D%20n%5Ccdot%20p%20%3D%20150%20%5Ctimes%200.804317%20%3D%20120.648%5Capprox%20121)
The expected number of green beans out of this 150 that are shorter than 13 centimeters will thus be approximately 121.