Question

You would like to know whether the progeny of a pair of mated fruit flies are distributed among the resulting four phenotypic classes in a 1:1:1:1 ratio. You perform a chi-square test and obtain a p value of 0.04. Assuming you have done the test correctly, select the best interpretation of this result?
A. The phenotypic ratio is actually 9:3:3:1
B. Approximately 4% of the offspring lie outside the range of values expected for a 1:1:1:1 ratio.
C. The differences between the observed and expected counts are too large to be attributed to chance.
D. The traits being studied are on separate chromosomes.

Answer 1

Answer:  

C. The differences between the observed and expected counts are too large to be attributed to chance.

Explanation:

The p-value of the statistic represents the chance that the observed count is based on luck or chance. When p value too high, the research can't be used since the chance that its not represent real condition are too high. Most researchers use 5% (0.05) as the cutoff of something called statistically significant. In this research, the p-value is 0.04 or 4%, so it is statistically significant.